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THE PALMS OF SAN FERNANDO REY. 



THE STORY 



OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA 



THEIR ESTABLISHMENT, PROGRESS 
AND DECAY 



BY 






Laura Bride Powers 



ill n 



SAN FRANCISCO 

WM. DOXEY 

1893 



f 7 fv y- 



Copyright, 1893, 

BY 

Wm. Doxey. 



JtyioTf 




ISrtitcatton* 

To her whose gentle hand has 

guided me through the vale 

of my childhood ; whose loving 

heart has shared the joys ^and 

sorrows of my riper years — to 

her, 

ffi% JIHotfjer, 

is this volume most tenderly 
dedicated. 



THE ANGEL US. 

Heard at the Mission Dolores, San Francisco, 1868. 

Bells of the past, whose long-forgotten music 

Still fills the wide expanse, 
Tingeing the sober twilight of the present 

With color of ro?nance. 

I hear your call, and see the sun descending 

On rock, and wave, and sand, 
As down the coast the mission voices blending 

Girdle the heathen land. 

Within the circle of their incantation 

No blight nor mildew falls ; 
Nor fierce unrest, nor lust, nor low ambition 

Passes those airy walls. 

Borne on the swell of your long waves receding, 

I touch the further Past — 
/ see the dying glow of Spanish glory, 

The sunset dream atid last! 

Before me rise the dome-shaped mission towers, 

The white presidio ; 
The swart commander in his leathern jerkin, 

The priest in stole of snow. 

Once more I see Portoltfs cross uplifting 

Above the setting sun; 
And past the headland, northward, slowly driftitig, 

The freighted galleon. 

O solemn bells ! whose consecrated ?nasses 

Recall the faith of old — 
O tinkling bells ! that lulled with twilight music 

The spiritual fold — 

Your voices break and falter in the darkness — 

Break, falter, and are still; 
And veiled and mystic, like the Host descending ', 

The sun sinks fro?n the hill! 

— F. Bret Harte. 



PREFACE. 



^ I ^HIS little volume might well have gone 
-*- forth to its destiny, known as "A Plea for 
the Missions/ ' That interest might be aroused 
in behalf of these decaying heirlooms ere it 
becomes too late, I have endeavored to tell their 
tale of ascendency and ruin, hoping thereby to 
enlist sympathy in the cause of their restoration 
and preservation. 

With this object in view, I have gathered such 
information as years of research have woven 
together — information obtained from that most 
reliable of sources — manuscripts — including dia- 
ries, mission registers, and personal letters. 

We are constantly reminded by our European 
cousins of the woeful absence of ruins or antiqui- 
ties in America. Now, let us Californians establish 
our claims to those evidences of stability by 
preserving our mission ruins from further disinte- 



VI PREFACE. 

gration. Let us act ere the hour of action is 

past, and thrust aside the destroying hand of 

Time from the landmarks in the history of our 

State. They should live — they must live, not 

only in memories and histories, but in proud 

reality. 

L. B. P. 
San Francisco, June /, /Spj. 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter Page 

I. Mission Ruins 9- 

II. Preparations for Mission Establish- 
ment 10 - 

III. Founding of San Diego Presidio and 

Mission 15 

IV. Mission Life 20 - 

V. Expedition to Monterey . /* . . . • 24 

VI. The Founding of San Carlos Borro- 

meo (Carmel) . . . 29 

VII. San Antonio Padua . ^ 55 

VIII. San Gabriel Arcangel 39 

IX. San Luis Obispo de Tolosa 45 

X. San Francisco de Asis (Dolores). . 49 

XL San Juan Capistrano 55 

XII. Santa Clara 60 

XIII. San Buenaventura 65 

XIV. The Angel of Death at San Carlos 71 
XV. Santa Barbara 76 

XVI. La Purisima Concepcion 81 

XVII. Santa Cruz 83 

XVIII. La Soledad 86 

XIX. San Jose . 88 

XX. San Juan Bautista 90 

XXI. San Miguel 92 

XXII. San Fernando Rey 95 

XXIII. San Luis Rey de Francia 97 

XXIV. San Antonio de Pala 100 

XXV. Santa Inez 101 

XXVI. San Rafael 102 

XXVII. San Francisco Solano 103 

XXVIII. Resume 104 - 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



The Palms of San Fernando Key— {frontispiece). Pare 

San Diego de Alcala 16 

San Carlos Borromeo (Carmel) 24 

San Antonio de Padua 30 

San Gabriel Arcangel 36 

Chiming Bells of San Gabriel 36 

A Stirrup Carved by Neophytes 41 

A Cup Made by a San Gabriel Neophyte ... 43 

San Francisco de Asis (Dolores) 50 

San Juan Capistrano 56 

Santa Barbara 64 

The Garden of Santa Barbara 64 

San Luis Obispo 72 

Santa Clara 72 

San Fernando Rey 80 

San Luis Rey de Francia 88 

Santa Inez 94 

San Antonio de Pala 94 

La Soledad 94 

San Miguel 100 

San Buenaventura 100 



THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 



CHAPTER I. 

MISSION RUINS. 

LET him who has within his soul a spark of 
y exalted emotion and an appreciation of the 
sad sublimity of departed glories, come with me 
to the missions, and stand within their silent walls, 
mute and uncovered. Visit them, if possible, after 
the moon has risen; bathed in her soft, subduing 
light, the ruins become mystifying and inspiring. 
The scene shifts into a vision. From the hollow 
corridors, you will hear the voices of the hooded 
padres at prayer. Listen, and you will hear the 
gathered Indians, chanting as of old the "Ave, 
Maria,' ' — look, and you will behold gardens of 
tropical beauty, sweeping orchards, and majestic 
buildings. 

Thus, in the calm quiet, you will drift backward 
a hundred years, and dwell for the nonce beneath 
the shadow of the silent sanctuary; a sound from 
yonder belfry arouses you from your reverie; it is 
the screech of a night owl, disturbed from his soli- 
tude by your presence. You are startled, and 
awaken to discover that you have been soliloquiz- 



lO THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ing. The fountains that fell in soft cadence long 
since are silent; the beautiful gardens and the blos- 
soming orchards long ago passed into the hands 
of strangers. The glories of the missions are but 
memories of the past, and the gentle moon can 
hide but for the hour the tale of desolation and 
ruin. O, a shame that some human hand hath not 
the pity of the moon — to beautify these ruins, to 
preserve them, and perhaps, to restore some of 
them to their pristine beauty! True, the vandal 
hand of the relic hunter has desecrated the aged 
cloisters — paintings, statues, and ornaments dis- 
appearing from time to time ; but within those 
structures that have survived, much remains that 
was gathered there in the pre-pastoral days of 
their founding. 



CHAPTER II. 

PREPARATIONS FOR MISSION ESTABLISHMENT. 

IN 1543, while exploring the coast of the mys- 
terious Upper California, Cabrillo entered a 
land-locked harbor of much beauty, which he 
named San Miguel. Sixty years later Vizcaino, 
commanding a Spanish exploring fleet, sailed into 
this same bay, whose name he changed to San 
Diego de Alcala, in honor of his flagship. The 



PREPARATIONS FOR ESTABLISHMENT. II 

explorer left copious accounts of the new land 
and its inhabitants; but it was not until a century 
and a half had elapsed that the Spanish govern- 
ment made practical use of the knowledge. 

Meanwhile, the different orders of missionaries 
were constantly importuning the king to give them 
authority to establish missions in Alta California; 
but intrigues and troubles at court usurped the 
royal attention, and their petitions passed unheeded. 
Still undismayed, they presented prayer after prayer, 
until at last Spain awoke from her lethargy, and 
the longings of the zealots were about to be real- 
ized. Undoubtedly, though, had it not been for 
the fear of Russian invasion from the north, and 
for other political reasons, Spain would not then 
have heeded the prayers that for over a century 
had fallen unavailingly upon diplomatic ears. 

It was then resolved to occupy Alta California, 
and to establish military posts at San Diego and 
Monterey, as described by Vizcaino. The mili- 
tary expedition was placed under Jose de Galvez, 
the most efficient officer in New Spain, and a prime 
favorite with Carlos III. Immediately after receiv- 
ing the royal decree to occupy these ports, he 
summoned for consultation — that the military and 
the religious expeditions might act in unison — 
. Padre Junipero Serra, President of the Franciscan 
missions of Lower California. Full of hope and 
zeal born of years of patient waiting, Serra set out 



12 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

to meet the energetic Galvez. Between them it 
was agreed that the old Jesuit regime be re-estab- 
lished; that is, that the older missions give birth to 
new ones, by furnishing church property — such as 
vestments, bells, and ornaments — besides such live- 
stock, grain, and implements as could be spared. 
The church ornaments were regarded as gifts; but 
the more substantial donations were treated as 
loans, to be repaid in kind when prosperity should 
reward them. 

It was decided that four expeditions — two by 
land and two by sea — were to be dispatched to the 
land of the gentile. The first — a company of twenty- 
five Catalan volunteers — under the command of 
Lieutenant Fages, arrived from Guaymas, to pro- 
ceed to sea as the first detachment of the illustrious 
band of crusaders into Alta California. 

On the 9th of January, 1769, the San Carlos 
was ready to put to sea. St. Joseph, the patron 
saint of the expedition, was solemnly invoked to 
smooth the seas and clear the skies, that the vessel 
might reach San Diego in safety. Early that morn- 
ing all had partaken of communion at mass, and 
prostrate before the altar, with tear-dimmed eyes 
and outstretched hands, they besought divine aid 
to strengthen them in their courage and perse- 
verance. Junipero Serra, in stole and alb, pro- 
nounced a most solemn blessing upon the departing 
pilgrims, their flag, their crew, and upon the good 



PREPARATIONS FOR ESTABLISHMENT. 13 

Padre Parron, to whom the spiritual care of the 
expedition was intrusted; and after charging them 
in the name of God, of the viceroy, and of their 
king to accept the authority of the priests, and to 
preserve peace and unity among themselves, he bade 
them a loving farewell. Without a fear, the gallant 
crew stepped aboard the vessel, waved adieu to 
their Mexican home, and the San Carlos was off to 
sea. Fifteen days after, the San Antonio followed, 
with much the same ceremony. 

Meanwhile the land expeditions were preparing 
for their invasion. Captain Rivera had gone north- 
ward through Mexico, visiting each mission and 
taking such livestock and supplies as could be 
spared. With concentrated forces and property, 
he started north for San Diego in March. Father 
Juan Crespi, a coadjutor of Serra, who had come 
with him from the Isle of Mallorca to the Sierra 
Gorda missions sixteen years before, was or- 
dered to accompany this expedition. Accordingly 
he left the mission of Purisima, and, with Father 
Lasuen, joined Rivera's noble little army of cru- 
saders. 

After the customary blessing and the invoca- 
tion of divine help, details being perfected, the 
march began, each heart full of the love of God, 
with zeal and hope for the future; but not without 
some misgivings, for Vizcaino had told them in his 
manuscripts of the totally low and depraved condi- 



14 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

tion, mentally, morally, and physically, of the 
Indians along the coast. 

The second division, under Governor Portola, 
had already proceeded; but Padre Serra, who had 
planned to accompany this party, was disappointed 
in his hopes. He had not yet completed his collec- 
tion of church utensils; besides, he was suffering 
from an ulcerous sore on his foot, caused many 
months before, during a journey afoot from Vera 
Cruz to Mexico. In such a wretched physical 
condition was he, that his colleagues deemed his 
following them sadly impossible. Possessed, how- 
ever, of indomitable energy and zeal, while yet 
very lame, he set out on his journey at the end 
of March, stopping over a short time at San 
Javier with Francisco Palou, whom he appointed 
president of the missions in Mexico during his 
absence. Slowly, and with great suffering at every 
step, he journeyed on from mission to mission, 
impelled forward by the fire of zeal that seemed at 
times to consume the anguish of his pain, till on 
the 5th of May, amid much rejoicing, he overtook 
Governor Portola' s party. From the governor's 
diary, we learn of much physical suffering among 
the pilgrims, — scurvy and malignant fevers hav- 
ing broken out among them, greatly reducing their 
numbers. 



SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO AND MISSION. 1 5 

CHAPTER III. 

FOUNDING OF SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO AND MISSION. 

IN 1769, on the 16th of July, day of the Tri- 
umph of the Most Holy Cross, the mission of 
San Diego de Alcala was founded. The men and 
officers, naval and military, assembled at the site 
selected for the presidio; and with deep gratitude 
for their deliverance from the perils of travel, they 
set to work to erect a temporary altar' at which to 
give thanks in the holy sacrifice of the mass. 
Bells were swung over a neighboring tree, and 
rung by willing hands; the " Veni Creator'' rang 
out clearly on the virgin air; the water was blessed, 
the cross raised, and the royal standard thrown to 
the breeze. Thus was the country taken in the 
name of God and the king. Groups of savages 
had gathered about, and dumb with astonishment, 
watched the proceedings to the end. 

They were not an inviting people to behold, 
clad in breech-cloths made of the skins of wild 
animals, and armed with spears, clubs, and bows 
and arrows. Their features were thick and heavy, 
showing no ray of mental or moral elevation. 
They were contemptible physically, as well as 
intellectually, — Humboldt classing them as low in 
the scale of humanity as the inhabitants of Van 
Diemen's land, who were the nearest approach in 



It) THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

the human fabric to the brute creation. The 
women wore braided strands of rabbit skins, fast- 
ened together, forming one garment, which hung 
from the waist to the knees, and was garnished 
with fringes of gaudy beads and bright grasses. 
Add to this their faces smeared with colored mud, 
and you have a dame of fashion attired for society. 

The missionaries found the natives as a nation 
lazy, cruel, cowardly, and covetous, with no orators 
among them, but few warriors, and possessed of no 
native lore. 

Their language was a strange jargon; and here 
arose the first of the many obstacles that beset the 
paths of the padres. After having tenderly nursed 
the sick crusaders back to health, the indomitable 
Serra and companions set to work to acquire the 
Indian tongue. Then began the dawning of Chris- 
tian light. Meanwhile, the soldiers were busily 
engaged erecting suitable buildings on the site 
chosen for the presidio, — called by the Indians 
"Cosoy," — and when completed, they consisted 
of the church, the fort, dwellings and warehouses, 
and shelter for cattle and livestock. 

Shortly after their completion, however, Padre 
Serra moved the mission from the presidio to 
" Nipaguay," about two leagues distant, whose 
fertile fields offered fine pasturage to his fast in- 
creasing flocks. Here there were brought to the 
baptismal font 474 savages, whose secular educa- 



SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO AND MISSION. 17 

tion was going on hand in hand with the spiritual. 
They had been taught to till the soil, to raise wheat, 
vegetables, and cotton, and to manufacture a coarse 
kind of cloth; some of them became carpenters, 
others blacksmiths, and some stone-cutters. A 
few of the most intelligent ones had learned to lead 
in prayer, and frequently assisted the padres in 
instructing those of their brethren who desired to 
be baptized. Thus did the good Padres Fuster 
and Jaume, with their predecessors, labor on from 
dawn till dark, content and happy in doing their 
Master's bidding, rejoicing at each baptism and 
confirmation, and bearing with Christian fortitude 
their sorrows and disappointments. 

On the 5th of November, 1775, after having 
bade his " children/' as he fondly termed the neo- 
phytes, a cheery "good night,' ' and retired, Father 
Jaume was suddenly awakened from his slumbers 
by the demoniac howls of a thousand or more fren- 
zied savages, descending upon the mission like a 
pack of wolves bent on destruction. Rushing out 
to appease their fury, he drew his crucifix from his 
belt and raising it aloft, cried out: " Amad a Dios, 
hijos" (Love God, my children). Immediately 
they fell upon him with spears, clubs, and stones, 
and with savage glee, they pierced his bruised and 
bleeding body through and through. As he fell 
mortally wounded, he kissed his crucifix, com- 
mended his spirit to God, and gasped out: "O 



1 8 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

Jesus, save my soul." The soldiers of the guard, 
two of whom were wounded by arrows, rushed to 
the rescue of Father Fuster, upon whom the fire 
was fast approaching. " Seek my companion," he 
cried; and unmindful of his own danger, he rushed 
out amid the shower of stones and arrows, calling 
wildly to his beloved companion, unconscious that he 
lay in the courtyard a hacked and bleeding corpse. 

Already the buildings were burning fiercely, the 
savages were becoming wilder with excitement, 
and yelping like hyenas, danced and darted about 
in the flickering light, hurling stones and arrows 
unremittingly at the corral, whither Father Fuster 
and companions had sought refuge. A horrible 
night it was. No human help at hand, the good 
padre had besought Heaven to help them in this 
their great peril, and his prayer was answered. 
Though arrows flew thick and fast all through 
the night about their heads, yet not a hair was 
touched. Behind Father Fuster lay a sack con- 
taining fifty pounds of gunpowder. Though 
burning brands were falling everywhere, it was 
miraculously untouched. 

Corporal Rocha and his wounded soldiers kept 
up their fire from the front of the corral, and with 
good results. When day began to dawn, bringing 
great relief to the prisoners, it was seen the fury 
of the mob was spent, and the savages were dis- 
persing. 



SAN DIEGO PRESIDIO AND MISSION. 19 

Then appeared the neophytes, sorrowing greatly 
that they had been unable to repress their furious 
brethren. Two of them — Ignacio and Roque — 
soon after daylight recovered the body of the mar- 
tyred Padre Jaume, bruised and beaten to a pulpy 
mass, twenty times speared through the breast, 
the great gaping wounds filled with clotted blood. 
His comrade, Father Fuster, was beside himself 
with grief; but well he knew the coveted crown of 
the martyr rested upon the brow he loved so well. 
Tenderly the body was borne to the presidio, 
where, with deep sorrow, it was committed to 
mother earth. Here, also, were the bodies of the 
unhappy blacksmith and his comrade, who had 
fallen early in the fray, laid to rest. 

Immediately there stepped into the martyred 
friar's place Padre de la Pena, who, with Fuster, 
took up anew the work so rudely interrupted, 
re-establishing the mission at the presidio for 
greater safety. In 1804, a new church was erected, 
and the bodies of Padre Jaume and colleagues 
were reinterred in the sanctuary. Again, in 1813, 
a more substantial church was built, and it is the 
remains of this structure that to-day attract the 
tourist. On November 12, 18 13, with the greatest 
solemnity, the new edifice was dedicated; again the 
bodies were destined to be disturbed, — this time to 
be laid away forever to sleep in the shadow of the 
cross they loved. According to " Book I of Bap- 



20 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

tisms, Marriages and Deaths," Father Jaume was 
buried beneath the arch that joined the sanctua- 
ries. Here rests the martyr in whose blood Cali- 
fornia was baptized. In 1800, there were about 
three thousand neophytes in the mission and sur- 
rounding rancherias, and it might be of interest 
to inquire into their modes of living. In the early 
part of the above year, there came to San Diego 
from Mexico eight foundling children, one of 
whom survived to dictate, in 1876, the story of 
routine life at the missions. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MISSION LIFE. 

AT daylight all animal life was astir. Every 
one save the sick and infirm proceeded 
to mass, after which breakfast was served. This 
consisted unvaryingly of atole, or ground barley. 
Thence all repaired at sunrise to their daily task. 

Between eleven and twelve o'clock, the midday 
meal was partaken of, consisting of the ever-present 
atole in its different forms, with mutton as a side 
relish. Occasionally the Spanish frijoles were ob- 
served on the table at this meal. To the sick or 
aged milk was freely given. 

During the heated hours of the summer after- 



MISSION LIFE. 21 

noons a burro laden with buckets would pass 
around the fields, regaling the toilers with draughts 
of vinegar and sweetened water. This was con- 
sidered a rare luxury. 

At six o'clock the evening meal was served. 
Pinole, the favorite preparation from atole, formed 
the piece de resistance. To this the neophytes were 
at liberty to add nuts and wild berries, which they 
gathered in large quantities and stored away. 

The commissary department was conducted in 
a modified communistic style. Each morning at 
daybreak the mavera, or keeper of the granary, 
distributed to each individual or family sufficient 
food for the day. 

The unmarried males carried their share to the 
pozolera, where it was prepared and partaken of at 
a common table. The benedicks carried their 
rations to their respective rancherias, where they 
shared their atole with their families. Here was 
laid the foundation-stone of Californian civilization. 
The family circle had become a fixed institution. 

At five o'clock the labors of the day were ended, 
and man and beast plodded their way homeward 
and to rest. At sundown the ' ' Angelus ' ' called the 
faithful to prayers; the neophytes, workmen, and 
priests repaired to the chapel, where the " Litany" 
was sung and the evening blessing imparted. The 
day was done. 

Thus we have seen how the male converts spent 



22 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

their days. How and where were the females 
occupied? Picture, if you can, a low stone struc- 
ture, built so as to leave a square court in the mid- 
dle. This was the monjerio, or nunnery, presided 
over by a trusted old Indian woman. No eunuch 
in the Sultan's seraglios watched over his beauties 
with greater scrutiny than did this old woman over 
her charges. Under her watchful eye by day, at 
night she locked them up securely and carried the 
key of the outer door to the padre. This, I learn, 
was deemed expedient, owing to the quivering- 
state of society at that period. 

There in the courtyard of the monjerio the girls 
weaved and spun, laughed and chatted, and often 
threw sheep's eyes at the males whom Cupid cun- 
ningly cast in their path. It sometimes happened 
that the spark engendered by those coy glances 
kindled into love, and resulted in marriage. This 
was winked at by the padres if the maiden had 
attained a proper age. 

All the cloth that was used at the mission and 
much used at the presidio was produced by the 
deft fingers of the mission maidens, besides all the 
blankets, sheets, tablecloths, towels, and napkins. 
Thus, it can be seen, they were trained to become 
thrifty housewives. 

As to the modes of punishment adopted by the 
Padre Presidente for refractory converts, I learn 
that imprisonment was much in vogue. If the 



MISSION LIFE. 23 

crime was a capital one, however, the culprit was 
turned over to the military authority at the pre- 
sidio. Indeed, it is recorded where rebellious 
young men had been laid over the good old padre's 
knee to receive physical emphasis of his admoni- 
tions, and with salutary effect. 

Thus the years rolled on. The stock had in- 
creased with wonderful rapidity; the orchards flour- 
ished, the fields yielded an abundance of wheat, 
and prosperity reigned. But, better than all, civili- 
zation and Christianity had taken root in the new 
soil and had thriven vigorously. 

In 1835, there came a thunderbolt that smote 
the mission system till it shook and fell a shattered 
fabric. It came in the form of a decree, — that the 
missions were to be snatched from the jurisdiction 
of the priests without ceremony, and transferred, 
just as they stood, to the government. Comisiona- 
dos were dispatched to the mission to assume 
charge before the startled padres had time to re- 
cover themselves. The story was true; alas, too 
true. The neophytes, whom they had cared for 
and looked upon as their children, were now 
snatched from them and turned adrift. The flocks 
they had tended, the orchards they had reared, and 
the buildings they had erected, were now no longer 
theirs. That the blow was premature, I have no 
doubt. Neither the padres nor the converts were 
prepared for it, and the result was disastrous. 



24 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

From the "Book of Baptisms," we learn that 
7,126 baptisms took place from 1769 to 1846, 
1,726 confirmations and 2,051 marriages; and not 
only had the natives been taught the rudiments 
of religion, but of civilization, and even culture, as 
well. Considering the low mental and moral status 
of the natives, the result of the mission work was 
remarkable, as far as it went. This is the tale of 
the first white settlement in California, her first mis- 
sion, and the landmark of her history. Of the once 
proud church but a few crumbling walls remain, 
and the day is almost at hand when even these will 
have passed away. The spot will then be marked 
only by the gravestones of its founders. 



CHAPTER V. 

EXPEDITION TO MONTEREY. 

IN pursuance of the policy of the king, the next 
mission was established at Monterey and called 
San Carlos Borromeo. The first expedition sent 
out to plant the cross on the sandy beach of 
which Vizcaino wrote, failed in its undertaking, and 
it was not until June 3, 1770, that the mission was 
finally established. 

On July 14, 1769, Governor Portola, with sixty- 
four persons, started from San Diego to Monterey, 



EXPEDITION TO MONTEREY. 25 

Padres Crespi and Gomez accompanying him as 
the spiritual directors of the undertaking. The 
diary of the former is still extant, and gives a de- 
tailed account of this first great inland march. 
After four days of travel the explorers found them- 
selves in the charming valley, in which after ward 
the Mission of San Luis Rey was located. A veri- 
table garden of beauty it was, with flowers of every 
hue and description growing in profusion. 

The natives encountered on the way were uni- 
formly hospitable, and supplied the explorers with 
an abundance of antelope and smaller game. The 
farther north they proceeded the more intelligent 
the natives appeared. They differed widely from 
the Dieguinos of the south, even their languages 
being distinct. In dress, or rather undress, they 
were somewhat similar — the men of the north dis- 
pensing entirely with the breech-cloths, not even 
affecting the traditional fig-leaf. The women, how- 
ever, clung to the skirt of rabbit skins with its 
vegetable adornments. 

By the middle of August, Portola had reached 
the mouth of the Santa Clara river, where he dis- 
covered the most populous Indian village so far 
found in California. The houses were curious little 
spherical affairs with thatched roofs, and were hud- 
dled together in friendly contact. On the travelers 
pushed, passing the Sierra de Santa Lucia and its 
companion peaks, and climbing many of the smaller 



26 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ones. At last they struck a stream, which they 
at once concluded was Rio de Carmel,* but which 
afterwards proved to be the Salinas river. How 
near the coveted port they were they did not know. 
Reconnoitering parties were sent out, but for some 
inexplicable reason they failed to recognize the bay 
at their feet as that of Monterey. 

A council was then formed to determine whether 
the march be abandoned. It was decided, how- 
ever, to continue up the coast, and, if possible, to 
discover the great inland sea — that is, San Fran- 
cisco bay. After a few days' exploration around 
the peninsula the explorers set about to return to 
San Diego. During the homeward march they 
halted on the same sandy beach that they had 
camped upon going north. Here they built and 
erected a huge white cross, upon which they in- 
scribed, * ' Dig at the foot and thou wilt find writ- 
ing." There they buried an account of their 
wanderings, and inclosed a request that the com- 
mander of any vessel happening along within rea- 
sonable time should follow down the coast line and 
keep a lookout for them, as they were in sore 
distress for food. Though no succor arrived, 
the explorers reached San Diego in safety. The 
first expedition to establish a mission at Monterey 
had thus resulted in failure. Portola was discour- 

* This river was named by Vizcaino in honor of three Carmelite 
friars who accompanied his exploring expedition in 1603. 



EXPEDITION TO MONTEREY. 27 

aged and faint-hearted, and favored returning to 
Mexico. 

While thus deliberating upon the abandonment 
of the northern scheme, instructions arrived from 
the viceroy for a second expedition. Fresh sup- 
plies had arrived from Loreto, and on April 17, 
1770, the return march began. This time Serra 
accompanied the party. They followed the same 
line of march as before, and on May 24th they 
came upon the cross that had been erected the pre- 
vious winter. A peculiar sight it was. Great fes- 
toons of clam-shells hung round its arms, and strings 
of fish and meat were wound about it everywhere. 
Ferocious-looking feathers projected from the top, 
and bundles of arrows and sticks were piled at the 
base. These were fetiches offered to appease the 
wrath of the gods of the " Guacamal" (the stran- 
gers). When the natives had learned to commu- 
nicate, they told with terrible seriousness how at 
nightfall the cross would stretch out its white arms 
into space, and grow skyward, higher and yet 
higher, till it would touch the stars; then it would 
burst into a blaze, and glow throughout the night. 

While walking along the surf-beaten beach and 
gazing out on the unsullied waters in meditation, 
Portola and Padre Crespi suddenly paused and 
cried out, as if by inspiration: "This is the port 
of Monterey which we seek, just as described by 
Vizcaino," and such it was. Why it had not been 



28 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

recognized before seemed almost incomprehensible. 
The joy of the discoverers knew no bounds, and 
hastening to camp with the glad tidings, a service 
of thanksgiving was offered up for the kind inter- 
vention of Providence. Monterey, the port so long 
coveted by Carlos III., now was his but for the 
taking. 

Soon after, camp was removed from the site to 
Carmelo bay, about three miles distant — a charm- 
ing spot of smiling meadow land. A constant 
lookout was kept for the San A?ito?iio; and when 
at last she hove in sight off Point Pinos, fires were 
lighted along the shore to guide her into port. On 
the following morning, ere the sun had risen, Por- 
tola, Fages, and Padre Crespi hastened in from 
Carmelo to greet the voyagers, who confirmed the 
belief of the land party that indeed had the coveted 
port been discovered. Once again camp was des- 
tined to be moved — this time back to the original 
site. In the manuscript of Vizcaino he told of a 
shady ravine that rose from the water's edge and 
sloped up to a hardy promontory. There it was 
plainly to be seen — there grew the self-same oak 
under whose hospitable branches Padre Ascension 
celebrated mass in 1603. Charmed with the spot, 
the explorers watched the waves with delight as 
they chased one another up and down the ravine, 
leaving flecks of fleecy foam behind, like bits of 
snow. 



SAN CARLOS BORROMEO. 29 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE FOUNDING OF SAN CARLOS BORROMEO. 

ON June 3, 1770, the Mission of San Carlos 
Borromeo was formally established. An en- 
ramada (a shelter of interwoven branches) was 
constructed, a cross built, and the water blessed. A 
trio of bells was swung over the green boughs of a 
patriarch oak, and loud and long were they rung 
by the ardent Serra, who cried out in his fiery zeal: 
' ' Come, ye gentiles; come unto the faith of Christ ! ' ' 
What more fitting place to worship than beneath 
these trees, His handiwork! 

"Why 
Should we, in the world's riper years, neglect 
God's ancient sanctuaries, and adore 
Only among the crowd, and under roofs 
That our frail hands have raised?'' 

Loud and clear the "Veni Creator" rang out 
upon the unsullied air, as the perfumed incense rose 
in clouds and floated off over the blue waters be- 
neath, whither I know not. 

The low murmurings of the praying padres hav- 
ing ceased, Portola stepped into the midst of the 
celebrants, and amid the boom of cannon and the 
roar of guns took formal possession of the port, in 
the name of God and the king. Thus were the 
orders of Carlos consummated, and the long-cher- 



30 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ished hopes of the missionaries in a fair way to be 
realized. 

After a survey of the locality, temporary struc- 
tures were erected in groups along the beach. 
These included a chapel, a workshop, several small 
dwellings, and such buildings as were necessary for 
presidial purposes. This accomplished, messengers 
were sent to bear the glad tidings to Mexico. On 
receipt of the news at San Diego, en route, the little 
band of Spaniards gathered together in their adobe 
chapel, the solitary oasis in that wilderness of idol- 
atry, and offered up the effusions of grateful hearts 
for the survival of their comrades and the triumph 
of the most holy cross. Meanwhile at San Carlos 
the good padres were laboring earnestly among the 
Eslenes, attracting them at first by gifts of beads, 
calicoes, and other trinkets dear to the savage heart. 
Once within the pale of the mission, the great zeal 
and love of Serra fascinated them; and ere many 
months had passed it was not unusual to observe a 
hundred or more dusky savages crouched upon the 
brow of the hill — the favorite pulpit of the padre — 
drinking in his words of inspiration with the deep- 
est interest. And when he told of the boundless 
and unfathomable love the God of the universe bore 
them, they would gaze into his face with much ear- 
nestness. 

Notwithstanding many perplexing difficulties, 
Serra and Crespi labored on, recompensed fully by 




3 



SAN CARLOS BORROMEO. 3 1 

each conversion. However, the proselytes were 
not coming into the fold in sufficient numbers to 
satisfy the zeal of the padres, and Serra concluded 
that proximity to the presidio was retarding the 
success of his labors. The presence of the soldiers 
was ever regarded as contaminating; but the evil 
was necessary, and had to be endured. In a few 
months thereafter Serra withdrew his neophytes 
and companions to Carmelo valley. By December, 
1770, a chapel had been erected, besides several 
dwellings and corrals, all inclosed within a palisade. 

During the next year dark clouds gathered in the 
skies for the poor padres. Supplies had given out, 
the ships were long overdue, and the missionaries 
were forced to throw themselves upon the charity 
of the natives. Fages, who had meanwhile become 
Comandante, with several of his men, spent many 
weeks in the Canada de los Osos, hunting antelope, 
bear, and other game, with which to replenish the 
mission larder. Thus were body and soul kept to- 
gether until help arrived in the spring. During the 
dark period the zeal of the padres burned as fierce- 
ly as ever, their deprivations bringing them into 
closer contact with the natives, and the intimacy 
thus established resulting in many conversions. 

The livestock, for which the missions afterwards 
became famous, began to prosper on the grassy 
plains of Carmelo; the grain crops grew large, and 
the temporal outlook for San Carlos became more 



32 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

promising. The records of many succeeding years 
have been lost; we have but to judge of the pro- 
gress made in the interior by the condition of things 
at the time the later records begin. 

Let us glance at the Mission San Carlos Borro- 
meo as it appeared in its prime. On a slight emi- 
nence overlooking the gentle Rio de Carmelo stood 
the stone chapel, the remains of which have been 
preserved to us of to-day. Arranged about a court 
of half an acre were the other necessary buildings. 
The pozolera, or dining-hall, stood off to the south. 
Attached to it was a wing containing the cells of the 
friars — small, ill-ventilated, cheerless apartments, 
almost innocent of furniture. The sole contents of 
many of them was a couch of hides, stretched upon 
a stout wooden frame. The one luxury indulged in 
was in the frames being stout; otherwise, the portly 
persons of the padres were liable to hasty precipita- 
tion, should their dreams be at all troublous. 

All the luxury at the command of the padres was 
expended upon the chapel. Beautiful altar-cloths 
were embroidered by the girls in the monjerio ; 
vessels of gold were used in the devotions of the 
mass; paintings of rare value, many of them im- 
ported from Spain, adorned the walls, and as time 
wore on, beautifully carved altar-rails were placed 
before the sanctuary. 

In the tower that rose on the right hung four 
Mexican bells; these guided the daily affairs at the 



SAN CARLOS BORROMEO. 33 

mission and rancherias with great regularity. At 
noon and at eventide, when they rang out the ' ' An- 
gelus," the sound could be plainly heard at Monte- 
rey, three miles distant, when instantly every head 
was bared and bowed. It is said that this custom 
became universal; and even at the gaming table, in 
later days, the monte-dealer would raise his hand 
for silence at the ringing of the bells. For the 
nonce, blasphemy would cease, and an air of sanc- 
tity pervade even the den of vice. 

For many years, aside from occasional frights by 
Indian uprisings, the only excitement known to the 
padres and presidio soldiers was occasioned by the 
sociability of the bears and wolves in the vicinity. 
The dense woods back of Monterey afforded them 
hospitable shelter and practical immunity from the 
rusty carbines of the soldiers. Thus time wore on ; 
savages were daily brought into the fold, the 
padres laboring on till death or disease would over- 
take them; then would others press forward to suc- 
ceed them. 

Meanwhile several families had come from Mex- 
ico and settled in Monterey and in the pueblo of 
Branciforte. Many of the soldiers had wedded the 
laughing, dark- eyed Indian girls of the monjerio, 
and thus was the foundation laid of the society of 
future California. 

The padres, however, did not favor the inter- 
mixing of the native and Castilian blood, and re- 



34 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

solved upon heroic measures to keep the races 
distinct. It was largely due to the missionaries' 
influence that so many families retained in their 
veins the pure Castilian blood of their forefathers. 

A novel plan was decided upon to induce mar- 
riage among the natives. All the unmarried male 
neophytes were marched to the chapel, and placed 
side by side. Then the padre proceeded to the 
monjerio, where the Indian maidens sat chatting 
and spinning in the courtyard, and would ask : 
"Which of you, my daughters, wish to marry?" 
A coy glance and a laugh would pass around the 
circle, as each shy maiden awaited her sister's 
answer. Then together they would spring up fi om 
their spinning and follow the padre into the chapel, 
there to be arranged along the wall opposite their 
future husbands, in spelling-match style. 

Unlike the present custom of society, the girls 
were given the choosing. Great was the pertur- 
bation of prospective grooms, as they awaited their 
fortunes, good or ill; such desperate attempts to 
attract the eye and the choice of the younger and 
prettier maidens, as they coquettishly ran their 
black eyes up and down the row of candidates! It 
sometimes happened that from the neophytes on 
hand the fastidious girls could not select com- 
panions to their fancy; these were permitted to 
have recourse to the gentiles, who frequented the 
mission locality. Not infrequently this fastidious- 



SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA. 35 

ness was the result of an affair of the heart while in 
their native wildness. In this romantic and some- 
what original manner many very happy marriages 
were consummated. Strange to relate, however, 
these native unions were never prolific. It re- 
mained for the Spanish families to populate the new 
country, and they fulfilled their obligations satisfac- 
torily. It was no uncommon sight to see from fif- 
teen to twenty-five children in one family. A large 
percentage of the children of the native race never 
passed the infantile period; but those that did sur- 
vive were sturdy, as a rule, and lived to good 
round ages, many attaining the centenary period. 

Many historians attribute the decimation of the 
native race to the new modes of life forced upor. 
it by the advance of civilization and Christianity. 
Be that as it may, the race was fast becoming 
incapable of its own reproduction, even before the 
advent of the white man, and this must needs 
result disastrously to any people. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA. 

I^T EARLY a year had passed since the cross 
1 1 was planted in the little shaded ravine at 
San Carlos; impatiently Serra had awaited the 



36 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

arrival of new friars and fresh supplies, that he 
might hasten to press forward the crusade of light. 

On May 21, 1771, as the mists of the morning 
lifted, there appeared in the offing the dim, white 
sail of the San Antonio. Her arrival was hailed 
with much joy, as she brought many necessary 
supplies and a relay of ten priests. Now was the 
path clear to push forward into the wilderness and 
establish the new missions of San Buenaventura, 
San Gabriel, San Luis Obispo, San Antonio, Santa 
Clara, and San Francisco. 

Two of the priests, however, were incapacitated 
from duty, having contracted the scurvy during the 
voyage. Partly on this account, and partly because 
of the scarcity of soldiers, three of the proposed 
missions were temporarily abandoned. 

Gathering together eight soldiers and a few neo- 
phytes from San Carlos, Serra set out in July to 
found San Antonio de Padua. Proceeding along 
the Salinas river, and up the Arroyo Seco, they 
came upon a beautiful glen studded over with 
clumps of huge oaks. Here they halted, and 
swung the bells over the trees, as had now become 
the custom. Then Serra celebrated mass, blessed 
the cross, and planted it upon a little grassy mound 
near the river bank. Thus, on July 14, 1771, the 
Mission of San Antonio de Padua was founded. 

The unusual soured of the ringing of bells 
attracted a native who was straying near by, and 




■J 
w 

o 

< 
u 

< 



SAN ANTONIO DE PADUA. 2)1 

who watched the proceedings with much curiosity. 
Hastening off, he brought his companions in large 
numbers, who tendered the missionaries great sup- 
plies of seeds, nuts, etc. With the friendliest feel- 
ings, they set to work carrying timbers and helping 
the soldiers in the erection of such temporary 
buildings as were needed. These were hastily con- 
structed, as Serra deemed it wise to proceed as soon 
as possible to till the soil — for farm they must, or 
starve, as supplies were becoming desperately low. 

Stone buildings eventually supplanted these rude 
structures, but they were never remarkable in style 
or in picturesque beauty, as were others. San An- 
tonio was noted, however, for one thing — her superb 
horses. The steeds of Arabia were not more cap- 
tivating than her high-stepping beauties, the pride 
of the padres and the envy of the Indians. Fre- 
quently this envy betook a demonstrative form, and 
assisted some of the beautiful horses away from the 
mission. Whenever detected, however, in appro- 
priating an animal, the wily savage would turn it 
loose in the woods to follow its bent. Thus it 
happened that wild horses became ere long quite 
as numerous as bears and wolves. 

Spiritually, San Antonio was, during the first 
decade of its history, the most successful of all, 
numbering at one time 1,076 neophytes. 

Like San Carlos, the mission beneath the oaks 
was not free from raids by the gentiles. In Au- 



38 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

gust, 1775, just as a catechumen was about to be 
baptized, a band of natives swooped down upon 
the mission, shot the neophyte, and were about to 
strike down the white-robed padre, when they 
were overpowered by the mission guard. 

The causes of these various outbreaks were usu- 
ally cupidity or revenge, —sometimes both; but in 
the present instance, the uprising was brought about 
by the brutal treatment accorded the native women 
by the soldiers of the guard. It is recorded that 
one of them had inveigled the wife of a powerful 
chieftain from her rancheria; who, seeking to re- 
venge himself upon the pale-faced destroyer of his 
home, proclaimed his grievance a tribal one, — 
hence the assault. 

All these irregular practices of the soldiers worked 
great hardships upon the missionaries, — who were 
compelled by law and force of circumstance to en- 
dure the objectionable presence of the military. 

In 1 801, the tragic death of Padre Francisco 
Pujol cast a deep gloom over San Antonio. Tow- 
ard the close of 1800, two of the officiating friars 
at San Miguel and San Antonio suddenly fell ill 
with a mysterious malady of the stomach and intes- 
tines. After suffering excruciating agony for a few 
days, death released them. That they had been 
poisoned by some deadly Indian draught there was 
no doubt. That a similar fate awaited their suc- 
cessors seemed more than probable; yet behold 



SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL. 39 

Francisco Pujol y Pujol stepping fearlessly into the 
breach, and taking up the cross laid down by his 
murdered brethren! His unselfish zeal, however, 
sealed his doom, for within three months the same 
frightful disorder had marked him for its victim; 
a week after having been stricken, he too laid 
down the burden, and was buried in the little 
chapel beside his comrades. 

When the new church was completed, in 18 13, 
his martyred remains were reinterred on the gos- 
pel side of the sanctuary, where they still lie in 
quiet solitude. Beside him in his eternal slumber 
lies the body of Padre Antonio Sitjar, the founder 
of San A ntonio and San Miguel. After thirty-seven 
years of unceasing toil among the gentiles, isolated 
from the scenes of his youth, or the haunts of men, 
this brilliant scholar, thinker, and linguist lay down 
to rest amid the scenes of his labors, — his triumphs 
and failures. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL. 

^AN GABRIEL, once the pride of the mis- 
\^_J sions, was established September 8, 177 1. 
During Portola's first march to Monterey, it was 
determined to establish a mission in the neighbor- 
hood of the lovely river of Santa Ana. Accord- 



40 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ingly, on August 6, 1771, Padres Somera and 
Cambon, with an accompanying guard of twen- 
ty men, set out to locate it. At the spot first 
designated no suitable site for their purposes was 
observable; so they proceeded farther north, and 
located near the river San Miguel, later called Rio 
San Gabriel. 

The spot upon which they halted was a veritable 
field of gold. The gentle rains of September had 
brought forth a w r ealth of goldenrod and eschscholt- 
zia, making the hearts of the padres glad with 
promises of fine fields and orchards. 

At the sight of the Spaniards a large band of 
natives gathered together, headed by two fierce- 
looking chieftains, who began warlike demonstra- 
tions forthwith. One of the padres thereupon 
drew from his breast a painting of the Madonna 
and held it aloft to their view. Instantly they fell 
upon their knees and offered up their beaded 
necklaces to the beautiful queen of angels. This, 
I am informed, was similar to the passing of the 
calumet, in vogue among the redmen of the Atlan- 
tic coast — a sign of peace. Then occurred the 
customary raising of the cross and the celebration 
of the mass. San Gabriel Arcangel was thus for- 
mally established. 

Conversions at first were few; but as the years 
wore on San Gabriel became second to none in 
spiritual conquests. Moreover, several industries 



SAN GABRIEL ARCAXGEL. 



41 



were developed in her workshops; a soap factory 
was established, besides a shoe-shop and a carpen- 
ter-shop. These were operated by converted In- 




A STIRRUP CARVED BY NEOPHYTES. 

dians, many of whom attained considerable skill in 
their respective branches. Manufactures, too, had 
progressed satisfactorily, including large quantities 
of cloth, blankets, bridles, saddles, etc. 



42 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

Among the padres at San Gabriel were b^iie of 
artistic tastes, whose leisure moments were devoted 
to carving in wood, horn, and leather, some speci- 
mens of which were very beautiful. Eventually, 
the more delicate and sensitive of the natives were 
instructed in the art, and some marvelous tracings 
were done by their hands. Many specimens of 
their workmanship remain about the mission; but 
the irrepressible relic-hunter has laid his plundering 
hand upon nearly everything movable in the way 
of native productions. Thus some of the most 
beautiful stirrups, saddles, and cups of the thrifty 
mission days have found their way into the hands 
of strangers. 

The livestock thrived wonderfully upon the gras- 
sy meadows, and at one time San Gabriel possessed 
more cattle than any other establishment. But 
of her vast bands, few remained after seculariza- 
tion; or, more properly speaking, after the great 
slaughter incident to the secularization. It is said 
that in the corrals of San Gabriel alone 30,000 
head of cattle were slaughtered, — killed at the in- 
stance of the padres in their endeavor to snatch 
something from their possessions ere they passed 
part and parcel into the hands of the government. 
A contract was entered into whereby the cattle 
were to be slaughtered, and one half of the hides 
and tallow delivered to the padres. However 
just were the claims of the missionaries, the method 



SAN GABRIEL ARCANGEL. 43 

of adjustment seems hardly commendable. Thou- 
sands of carcasses lay rotting in the summer sun, 
infesting; the air with the foulest gases, threatening 




A PRODUCTION OF A SAN GABRIEL NEOPHYTE. 

disease to the rancherias within a radius of many 
miles. 

San Gabriel suffered sadly from the cruel blow 
of secularization, administered, as it was, at a time 
wholly premature and ill-advised. Secularization 
was but a synonym for destruction, for at the first 
sweep of the governmental edict, the beautiful 



44 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

orchards and vineyards began to decay. Like a 
maiden shorn of her tresses and despoiled of her 
beauty, the once proud church looked sadly upon 
her ruined landscape; no longer her fountains 
danced in the glistening sunshine, no longer did 
the trees in the orchard grow in the neat uniform- 
ity of old. Ruin and desolation, like mould on 
the wall, was creeping everywhere. 

In 1843, under the decree of Governor Michel- 
torena, San Gabriel, with eleven sister missions, 
was restored to the friars, who were empowered to 
preside over them as guardians of the Indians and 
custodians of the mission possessions. Restitu- 
tion, however, came too late; in the interval many 
neophytes had wandered away from the mission, 
not a few straying back to their mountain fastnesses 
and pastoral life; indolence had stamped its seal of 
poverty upon many who remained, — San Gabriel 
had drifted too far upon the shoals of disaster. 

In 1846, by order of Governor Pio Pico, the 
mission and nearly all of its vast domains were 
sold to William P. Reed and William Workman, 
in satisfaction of a debt. The padres disputed the 
validity of their title, however, upon the ground 
that Governor Pico possessed no power to dispose 
of mission property; and, after much litigation, the 
possessions reverted to the Church. Thereafter, a 
few Indians remained about the mission under the 
care and protection of the resident priest. 



SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA. 45 

The last historical drama in which San Gabriel 
was destined to figure was the battle between the 
Americans, under General Kearny, and the Cali- 
fornians and Mexicans; in the very shadow of the 
chapel were the latter defeated. 

Such was the fate of San Gabriel Arcangel, fair- 
est of all the Franciscan possessions — the generous 
monastery whose portals were open wide to all the 
wanderers of its time. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA. 

IT had long been the cherished desire of the 
Padre Presidente to see established a contin- 
uous chain of missions from San Diego to San 
Francisco. Toward the consummation of his plan, 
he determined to establish a mission in the pictur- 
esque Canada de los Osos, upon a site known 
among the natives as "Tixlini." This had long- 
been the hunting-grounds for the surrounding 
rancherias, abounding in deer, bear, and antelope, 
and thus had it come strongly under Father Serra's 
observation. 

Selecting Padre Cavalier, five soldiers, and a few 
San Carlos catechumens, Junipero started south. 
When within half a league of the Canada, he 



46 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

halted; and on the following day, September I, 
1772, raised the cross beneath the spreading 
branches of an aged cypress. The celebration of 
mass over, and the litany sung, the Mission of San 
Luis Obispo de Tolosa was ready to receive the 
benighted savages. 

' During the famine at San Carlos Borromeo, it 
will be remembered that Comandante Fages spent 
many weeks in the vicinity of the Canada, hunting 
bear for the mission pantries. The Indians, not 
aware of his motive, attributed his diligent slaying of 
bruin to a desire to rid their country of his objec- 
tionable presence. So, when the padres came, 
they were well received, the Indians assisting them 
in all the preliminary work; and later, having 
learned the art of hewing stone, they assisted at 
the building of the permanent chapel. 

Spiritually the natives were quite tractable. The 
first few months of the mission's establishment 
were more prolific of baptisms than was the first 
year of the earlier establishments. Temporally, 
San Luis Obispo de Tolosa prospered well after the 
first year; but those twelve months were trying 
times for the struggling, lonely Padre Cavalier. 
Then the clouds lifted — Padre Juncosa joined him, 
supplies came with more regularity, and a happy, 
prosperous community grew amid the spreading 
oaks. 

During the troublous times of 18 18, San Luis 



SAN LUIS OBISPO DE TOLOSA. 47 

had her part to play; when the call came from the 
government for supplies, Padre Luis Martinez, then 
stationed there, came forward with cloth, wines, 
fruits, and beef, with a liberality almost prodigal. 

While never remarkable for her wealth or pos- 
sessions, the Indians of San Luis were better fed 
and clothed than most of the gente de razon about 
them. 

The most conspicuous figure in its history was 
Padre Luis Martinez — he of the jovial, rubicund 
countenance and greasy gown. Never a more 
jocund friar wore the cowl of St. Francis; portly 
of figure and gruff of speech, he cut a most impos- 
ing figure as the head of San Luis. 

Situated near the seaboard, numerous traders 
and explorers visited the mission, ostensibly to pay 
a tribute of respect to the jolly friar, but secretly 
to obtain supplies from the mission storehouse. 
Ever hospitable to strangers, the impression went 
forth that Padre Luis was turning his ability to 
entertain to his pecuniary gain, — that the traders 
were not dismissed from the door of the storehouse 
when they knocked. In consequence of this, com- 
bined with political reasons, in the spring of 1830, 
he received an order from the viceroy, banishing 
him from his mission and his children. Whether 
the charges were true or false will perhaps never 
be known; however, be it said, that he had labored 
faithfully and well in his Master's vineyard, being 



48 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

much beloved by his colleagues and neophytes for 
his kindly, sunny disposition. His long residence in 
the lonely country had never produced in him the 
moroseness and asceticism that stamped many of 
his order; not even did the decree of banishment 
draw forth harsh or bitter sentiments. 

Hear I a whisper that he may have been glad to 
get away? Hardly so; for the parting with the 
neophytes in the mission garden was fraught with 
tears and sadness. However downcast he may 
have felt at his parting, it was not the disappoint- 
ing sorrow that fell to the lot of the remaining 
friars, who, a few years thereafter, were called upon 
to witness a complete collapse of their labors, an 
undoing of years of toil, deprivation, and sacrifice. 
The remaining years of the padre were passed in 
old Madrid. 

Defying time, the buildings reared on the Cana- 
da still exist, the chapel being in a good state of 
preservation. Though the mission was established 
in 1773, just at what date the chapel was com- 
pleted does not appear. Like all the missions, 
the first buildings were very crude — simple wooden 
structures with mud roofs, inclosed within pali- 
sades, not unlike the homes of the rugged Puritan 
settlers on the other edge of the continent. 

The great temblor in 181 2 did some damage to 
the walls of the church, but nothing more serious 
resulted from the ©Teat terrestrial disturbance. 



SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS. 49 

Secularization produced the same disastrous re- 
sults at San Luis as at all the other missions. Dis- 
integration of the mission property followed, grants 
were made of her lands, and naught now remains 
of her former glory but the storm-beaten walls of 
her church. 



CHAPTER X. 

SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS. 

THE planting of the cross at the point of the 
peninsula was the consummation of long- 
developed plans. 

When the first party of missionaries and explor- 
ers set out to find Monterey harbor, they passed 
their destination unwittingly; and, marching on 
northward, climbed the low hills in what is now 
San Mateo county. There, lying off to the left, 
was the vast unruffled bosom of the Pacific, and 
before them the bluff, bleak cliffs of Point Reyes, 
beneath which lay the much-talked-of port of San 
Francisco. While the party was reconnoitering, 
preparatory to departure, a couple of soldiers as- 
cended the hills near the camp in search of game. 
From the eminence a beautiful blue sea to the right 
revealed itself to their astonished gaze. Calmly 
resting in the embrace of green shores that sloped 
away to ancestral forests, the bay was inspiringly 



50 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

beautiful in its maiden purity; for never had the keel 
of vessel disturbed its serenity, nor had European 
eyes before gazed upon its voluptuous beauty. 
Hither had St. Francis drawn them, and here on 
its shores would be his mission. 

Accordingly orders were received from Viceroy 
Bucareli to proceed to the newly discovered port 
and there to establish a presidio and a mission; but 
adverse circumstances and Captain Rivera's idio- 
snycrasies retarded matters, so that a start was not 
effected until June 17, 1776. Then Lieutenant 
Moraga, with his little band of soldiers, their fami- 
lies and servants, bade farewell to their comrades 
at Monterey and took the route northward that 
Lieutenant Anza had established the year previous. 
After a slow march, camp was pitched on the La- 
guna de los Dolores. The San Carlos, with the sup- 
plies and cannon on board, had not yet arrived, 
nor did she for a month. 

Meanwhile, Moraga was diligently erecting huts 
for his people, and later took it upon himself to 
begin the construction of the presidio; until such 
time as the presidio was established, no mission 
could be thought of. At last, on September 17th, 
the structures being completed, the fort was form- 
ally taken amid the roar of a swivel gun and the 
ringing of bells. 

This done, the friars' hearts grew glad. Padres 
Palou and Cambon, assisted by De la Pena, forth- 



SAN FRANCISCO DE ASIS. 51 

with prepared to establish the mission. Already 
several soldiers had erected dwellings for their fam- 
ilies, and little remained now but the formal chant- 
ing of "Te Deum" and mass celebration, that the 
good St. Francis might be honored by a mission. 

The demonstrations incident to the presidio 
establishment drove the natives from the vicinity 
in fear — in fear of the ' ' chinchinabros, ' ' and their 
implacable enemies, the Indians of the San Mateo 
rancherias. For several months the fugitives could 
not be made to leave their island retreats, whither 
they fled in tule canoes, until the padres convinced 
them that the soldiers, instead of harming them, 
would offer them protection from danger. Then 
they returned and assisted in the erection of the 
church and the main dwelling; these were like the 
others — wooden structures — with tule roofs, but 
were somewhat more pretentious, being plastered 
with clay. 

On October 4th, the day of St. Francis of 
Assisi, the dedication was to have taken place; but 
Comandante Moraga being absent, the formal cere- 
monies did not occur until the 9th. A solemn 
procession, headed by an image of the patron saint, 
was formed after mass, composed of the good 
padres in their alb and stole, and those who were 
present at the founding of the presidio. The hills 
about reverberated with the volleys of musketry 
and the boom of cannon as the celebrants marched 



52 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

around the chapel — a fantastic spectacle, indeed, 
in the wild wilderness. Thus as the red sun 
dipped into the waters of the Golden Gate on 
that eventful eve, it shed its ruddy glow upon 
another outpost of Christ — the Mission of San 
Francisco de Asis on the Laguna de los Dolores. 

Be not confused over the discrepancies in the 
name of the establishment, it frequently being 
referred to as the Mission Dolores, which simply 
means "a mission upon the Dolores," — a stream 
which has since dried up, leaving no visible traces 
of its former bed. Dwindle tells us that the 
41 Willows/' once a familiar locality to early-day 
pleasure-seekers, was the home of this defunct body 
of water; this seems quite rational; since were it 
an arm of the bay it could not have supported the 
dainty willows that grew there so profusely. 

The padres at the new mission had trying times 
for many months, hordes of the fugitive natives 
remaining still in exile. Those who did venture 
into the mission came with hostile intentions, bent 
upon theft and making life as unbearable for the 
friars as possible. A few skirmishes occurred, in 
one of which a native was killed. Then a truce 
was declared, and thenceforth a peaceful commun- 
ity came to dwell within the mission. It is a notice- 
able fact that the exhibition of superior power, or 
brute force, was necessary to win respect or even 
toleration from the natives. 



SAN FRANCISCb DE ASIS. 53 

During the first year little of interest occurred. 
In June, 1777, three Indians were led to the bap- 
tismal font. The close of the year saw thirty-one 
proselytes, which was hardly cheering to the zeal- 
ous, hard-working friars. Later, however, when 
the savages and the padres came together on a 
more friendly basis, brought about in the old way 
by gifts, conversions became more numerous. 

Architecturally little progress was made during 
the decade. Timber was scarce, the adobe poor, 
and as a result the buildings were continually 
becoming disintegrated. Rarely ever was the lux- 
ury of four walls and a roof intact enjoyed. 

Financially the mission was prosperous. Its 
cattle multiplied with rapidity, and its yield of 
crops was plentiful. The crops were not sown in 
the immediate vicinity of the mission, owing to the 
sterility of the soil, but about ten miles down the 
peninsula. 

In 1826, the English navigator Beechey sailed 
into the Golden Gate, and visited the presidio and 
mission, which he describes thus : " The governor's 
abode was in a corner of the presidio, and formed 
one end of a row of which the other was occupied 
by a chapel; the opposite side was broken down, 
and little better than a heap of rubbish and 
bones, on which jackals, dogs, and vultures were 
constantly preying; the other two sides of the 
quadrangle contained storehouses, artificers' shops 



54- THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

and the gaol, all built in the humblest style, with 
badly burned brick and roofed with tiles. The 
chapel and the governor's house were distin- 
guished by being whitewashed." Like all our lat- 
ter-day English travelers, his description is scarcely 
flattering. There is no doubt, however, that San 
Francisco de Asis had passed the days of her 
ascendency; since the total population in 1830 had 
dwindled to about two hundred. 

Meanwhile, however, the chapel had been re- 
built, streets laid out with careful precision, and a 
pretty stream of gleaming water sent through the 
plaza. On either side dwelt the Indians and their 
families in little wooden huts, many of which be- 
came presentable, and even picturesque, beneath 
a burden of verdant vines — a quiet, Utopian 
village, near the Golden Gate. No haste, no 
greed, no envy, no worship of the almighty dollar; 
a striking antithesis to the great, busy commercial 
mart that was destined to rise from its ashes. 

Thus began a series of events that continued on 
in an uninterrupted chain, weaving the structure 
into the grand social fabric that became, ere a cen- 
tury passed, the Queen of the West. 

The precious link that joins our civilization of 
to-day with the romantic mission period is the 
quaint adobe chapel of the Mission Dolores, be- 
neath whose aged roof the hymnals from Indian 
throats were "gathered and rolled back" *~^ 



SAX JUAN CAPISTRANO. 55 

hundred years ago; where the primitive redman 
knelt in simple supplication to the God of the 
11 Guacamal," and learned from the lips of the 
pious padres the great truths of His teachings. 

Those who played a part in the history of the 
mission lie sleeping in its ruined churchyard, un- 
marked and forgotten, save by the gentle willows 
that wave and weep above them. Long may the 
church survive — the living monument of a by- 
gone age, and a lost people! 



CHAPTER XL 

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO. 

aINCE 18 1 2, the year of the great temblor, 
San Juan Capistrano has been a pile of ruins; 
the proudest edifice of its time, it is no less stately 
in its desolation. To my mind San Juan Capis- 
trano is the Melrose Abbey of the West. Visit it, bv 
all means, after the moon has risen, and the world 
about you is wrapt in slumber; then await the in- 
spiration. Not to feel an exhilaration of soul, an 
exaltation of the spirit, an imperceptible uplifting 
into a rarer atmosphere — Protestant and Catholic 
alike — there is something lacking in the composi- 
tion of your soul. 

Founded November i, 1776, San Juan came 



56 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

into being soon after the birth of our republic. 
Built entirely of stone and mortar, with graceful 
arches and a transept, it was indeed a splendid 
structure — built, incredible as it may seem, almost 
entirely by Indian hands. Its erection was begun 
on February 2, 1797, and completed in 1806. On 
September 7, 1806, in the presence of Padre Presi- 
dente Tapis and all the padres then available, the 
soldiers and scores of neophytes, it was dedicated 
to the " Solemnity of the Purification of the Blessed 
Mother.' ' 

In 1776, there had been an attempt at establish- 
ing the mission upon a site known to the Indians 
as "Quanis Savit Sajirit," but the murderous 
revolt at San Diego postponed operations; hastily 
the bells, chasubles and supplies were buried, and 
the mission was for the time abandoned. Imme- 
diately the company set out for the scene of the 
revolt, hoping to be of assistance to their isolated 
brethren at San Diego. 

On their arrival* however, everything was serene 
and calm; the warring gentiles had retired to their 
rancherias, and Father Fuster and his comrades 
had found safety at the presidio. 

Having remained a short time among the still 
nervous company to reassure them, Padre Serra, 
with Gregorio Amurrio and ten soldiers, started 
north to complete the mission so hastily abandoned. 

Spade in hand, the energetic Serra dug up the 




w 
U 



SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO. 57 

buried bells, swung them over a cypress tree, and 
rung them mightily. With the usual ceremonial 
of saying mass and chanting the " Te Deum," the 
establishment of the Mission of San Juan Capis- 
trano was completed. 

The first missionaries and those who reared the 
first structure were Padres Amurrio and Pablo de 
Mugartegui, both able and good men. But per- 
haps the most notable minister of San Juan in her 
golden days was Padre Jose Ma Zalvidea, a man 
of great sanctity and devotion, and withal pos- 
sessed of much executive ability and ambition. It 
was he who guided the destinies of San Gabriel for 
many years and who placed her at the head of the 
missions in affairs both temporal and spiritual. 
But as age grew upon him, his powerful mental 
activity waned, and we find him wandering about 
the fields of San Juan, whither he had gone as 
supernumerary, and for rest, discussing the subtlest 
problems of the doctrina with the cattle about him. 
It is said that one day while walking in the fields, 
prayer-book in hand and preoccupied in its perusal, 
a mad bull came tearing along the ground, throw- 
ing up the dirt at every spring, and making 
straightway for the meditating padre. The neo- 
phytes laboring near called out to him, but before 
he had heeded them, the bull was upon him. Look- 
ing up from his book, he cried out : " Begone, thou 
spirit of evil! " Raising his head, the animal re- 



58 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

garded the friar a moment, then lowered his tail 
and trotted away, leaving the padre uninjured to 
continue his meditation. This the neophytes re- 
garded as a providential delivery, attributing his 
safety to his great sanctity and devotion. 

In 1846, death released the poor old friar, who, 
in the discharge of his self-imposed duty, lost his 
health and reason, induced, no doubt, from solitude 
and the loss of companionship — the greatest hard- 
ship these men of refinement and education were 
called upon to endure. 

Matters progressed without much deviation from 
the ordinary routine of the preceding missions 
till 181 2, when the great earthquake, or temblor, 
visited them, bringing death and destruction in its 
wake. On the morning of December 8th, the 
neophytes gathered together in the chapel for de- 
votion. While the mass progressed, the sun with- 
drew behind a passing cloud, as if loath to watch 
the impending destruction. A low, rumbling roar 
was heard, the ground trembled, and lo! the lofty 
tower of the church came thundering through the 
vaulted roof upon the heads of the affrighted wor- 
shipers. The images ft 11 from their niches, the 
pictures from the walls, and the air was filled with 
dust and mortar. Miraculously the priest and six 
neophytes escaped. When the debris was cleared, 
the bruised and bleeding bodies of thirty-nine neo- 
phytes were found. On each succeeding day for a 



SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO. 59 

week, the survivors devoted their time to the ser- 
vices of the dead. A pall of sorrow had spread 
over San Juan Crpistrano from which she never 
emerged. 

The church was never reconstructed. Services 
were subsequently held in an adjoining adobe build- 
ing formerly used as a dwelling. The ruins, as 
they now stand, tell the tale of the destroying tem- 
blor \ though time has struggled to efface the harsh- 
ness of the story. In the churchyard hard by, lie 
the bodies of the padres who died in the service 
of the Church and civilization. The mission ruins 
are the eloquent epitaphs of their deeds. 

In 1833, Capistrano, like the others, was secu- 
larized. Those of the neophytes who were thor- 
oughly Christianized and considered reliable were 
allotted land to cultivate for themselves. They 
were thus freed from the jurisdiction of the padres, 
though under their spiritual guidance — the status 
of the friars having been changed from guardians 
of the Indians to that of parish priests. Then the 
mission lands were divided, the implements bor- 
rowed or lost; and the livestock, which numbered 
up in the thousands, was divided and stolen. Many 
thousands of head were slaughtered about the fields 
of San Juan, presumably with the padres' cogni- 
zance, rather than have them fail into the hands 
of the designing government. 

In 1843. however, observing the retrogression of 



60 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

the Indians and the destruction of mission prope. :v 
under the new regime, Governor Micheltorena 
ordered San Juan restored to the padres. 

Though they could not reclaim lands that had 
been granted, they were permitted to gather such 
cattle as could be traced, and to resume the guar- 
dianship of the Indians. Disorganization had pro- 
gressed too far, however, for restoration; and the 
next year the mission was sold by order of the 
Government to James McKinley and John Foster 
for seven hundred and ten dollars. The latter lived 
there in peaceful possession for twenty years, when 
the Catholic Church laid claim to the chapel and its 
belongings. After much litigation the Church won 
the suit, and is now the undisputed possessor of the 
picturesque ruins. 



CHAPTER XII. 

SANTA CLARA. 

AT the head of the broad, fertile plain of San 
Bernardino, through which wound the beau- 
tiful River Guadaloupe, Padre Tomas de la Pena 
determined to plant a mission. That one should 
be dedicated to the pious Assisi maiden had been 
long decided upon; so it was determined that the 
new one would be reared in her honor and under 
her guidance. 



SANTA CLARA. 6l 

On January 6, 1777, Padre Pena and Lieutenant 
Moraga, with the regular escoltas and muleteers, 
supplies, etc., bade adieu to their comrades at San 
Francisco de Asis, and inarched south to the se- 
lected locality, halting in the vicinity of four popu- 
lous rancherias, known as ' ' Tares. ' \ 

There, under an ejiramada of branches, on Janu- 
ary 1 2th, Padre Pena sang the mass, blessed the 
water, and raised the cross; Santa Clara was now 
added to the fast increasing outposts of civilization. 

Buildings were forthwith erected around the cus- 
tomary court — this one seventy yards square — 
and missionary work was immediately begun. 

The fat, round-bodied cattle proved a great 
temptation to the gastronomical savages, and the 
padres' lot for a long time was a sorry one, keeping 
guard over their beeves. However, after the very 
persuasive argument of a public execution, the cat- 
tle were practically let alone by the purloining In- 
dians 

Padre Pena was joined in his labors by Juan 
Murguia, and at the end of their first year they had 
gathered sixty-seven gentiles into the fold; besides, 
fourteen adults who died that year had become 
Christians upon their deathbeds— a source of great 
consolation to Pena in his declining years. 

The wisdom of the padre in selecting so fertile a 
locality was commented upon by Rivera and 
Moraga; but it suffered one serious drawback, be- 



62 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ing dangerously near the river bank, and liable to 
inundations. In 1779 these fears were fully real- 
ized. The freshets from the mountains swelled the 
volume of the river, and it overflowed its banks. 
The mission was flooded, and several houses float- 
ed off their foundations. Thereafter all moved to 
higher ground, where soil was broken for a new 
adobe church. 

On May 15. 1784, the dedication ceremonies 
took place, with Padre Serra as celebrant, assisted 
by Fathers Pena and Palou. The church was the 
most elaborate yet erected in California, graceful 
in outline and substantial in detail. Its builder and 
architect, Padre Murguia, sad to relate, was buried 
beneath its walls four days before its dedication. 
In 1 818 a heavy temblor visited the locality, and 
shook the chapel so seriously that repairs were 
deemed useless; so a new structure, still surviving, 
was erected in 1825-6. 

The arrangement of earlier buildings was similar 
to the San Francisco mission — grouped about an in- 
complete rectangle of one hundred by one hundred 
and seventy feet. Vancouver tells us that the dwell- 
ings of the padres and soldiers were far superior to 
any he had observed in the new country; compared 
with those of the friars at San Carlos, these were 
extravagantly spacious. In 1798, all the married 
neophytes had been gathered into the quaintest 
little village imaginable, composed of whitewashed 



SANTA CLARA. 63 

adobe dwellings, red-capped with tiles, with neat 
little kitchen gardens smiling before them. The 
beautiful wild- rose had been carried from its loose 
freedom in the glens near by, and planted and nur- 
tured w r ith care, till it clambered well-nigh to the 
house-tops, a dignified blossom of cultivation. Do- 
mesticity had begun to take root in the new soil, 
and, like the w r ild-rose, it was thriving vigorously, 
bearing each year fairer blossoms of love and right- 
eousness. Crime and evil-doing were becoming 
proportionately rarer, and the duties of the friars 
correspondingly less onerous. 

With the brightest of emerald fields beneath, the 
bluest of sapphire skies above, within sound of the 
gentle "swish" of the Guadaloupe, a happy com- 
munity of converts and friars grew and prospered. 
But behold ! In the distance the dense clouds of 
secularization had gathered; thicker and blacker 
they grew, till at last they burst upon the mission 
in all their fury. When the storm cleared, the 
crown and sceptre of Santa Clara had been swept 
away. Once the most populous outpost of the 
church, behold within a decade but four hundred 
of her fifteen hundred neophytes, only two thousand 
of her immense herds of cattle, and her orchards, 
that in former days yielded prodigally, fast falling 
to ruin. 

In 1839, while presided over by Jose Ramon 
Estrada, comisionado, vast tracts of fertile fields of 



64 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

the mission were granted away to foreigners, until 
at last the Indian rose in righteous indignation to 
assert his rights, and demanded that no more of his 
lands be stolen from him and given over into the 
hands of strangers. The unsupported protest carried 
but little weight; the friends of the crown and the 
supporters of the governor must of necessity be pro- 
vided for. Behold ! Ere many years the scanty 
ground upon which to plant his wickiup of grass 
and tule was quite denied him; if given, it was be- 
stowed in the name of charity — that which was his 
by the gift of God and the right of heritage. 

Of the once proud and prosperous mission 
little remains but the old adobe chapel and some 
lands round about, now in the possession of the 
Jesuits. Where, in the olden time, the Indian 
youths were wont to gather to learn the words 
of God and the ways of man, the sons ol another 
race and of another age are to-day brought together 
in the pursuit of a broader light. Few descendants, 
if any, remain of the primitive pupils of the padres 
— the relentless law of the survival of the fittest 
having long ago decreed the destruction of the na- 
tive race and the supremacy of the Aryan. Every 
vestige of the redman about Santa Clara has dis- 
appeared — everything save the mission church. 
That alone survives, a monument to a departed 
race. 



/ 



SAN BUENAVENTURA. 65 

CHAPTER XIII. 

SAN BUENAVENTURA. 

DURING Portola's romantic march of 1769 
along the surf-washed coast, he encountered 
several thickly populated Indian villages scattered 
along the Santa Barbara channel. Curious little 
towns, these, composed of conical huts of tules and 
grass, with an aperture on one side for ingress. 
These little savage settlements were laid out with 
geometrical precision, the green-brown huts, rising 
regularly from either side of a wide passage-way. 
Here was Chupu, the great god of the universe, 
worshiped with fiery sacrifice. 

Early in 1782, the heavy rains of winter over and 
the meadow-grass and daisies peeping into life, Pa- 
dres Serra and Cambon, together with seventy sol- 
diers and their families, started from San Gabriel for 
the channel rancherias, the flaming prairie-torch of 
spring lighting them on to their destination, whither 
they arrived March 29th. The company halted at 
the first of the villages, named ' 'Asuncion ' ' by the 
doughty Portola. Here Serra determined upon 
planting one of the three projected missions, desig- 
nating a spot near the beach for the site. Next 
day, as the sun was rising above the water's edge 
and gilding old ocean with streaks of yellow, an- 
other mission was ushered in. 



66 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

Beneath a shelter of fragrant cypress boughs, 
robed in their silken vestments, Padres Serra and 
Cambon solemnly chanted the mass, blessed the 
cross and the water, and dedicated the mission to St. 
Buenaventura, the "Seraphic Doctor," Giovanni 
di Fidanzo of Tuscany. A picturesque gathering 
crowded about. The officers and soldiers in their 
glittering uniforms knelt beside the neophytes in 
breeches and blanket, while, wild-eyed and furtive, 
the natives in their savage undress, stood wonder- 
ingly by, reassured, however, by the presence of 
their brethren from the north. Convinced that the 
coming of the Spaniard boded them no ill, the 
natives made many demonstrations of friendship 
and docility, generously bearing berries and seeds 
to the friars, the last, I doubt not, of their winter 
stores. 

Treachery, however, had been an inalienable at- 
tribute of the savage ever; and, mindful of superior 
numbers of the natives and of the inefficiency of 
military protection of the Spaniards, it was deemed 
expedient to throw up earthworks and palisades 
about the proposed site ere the buildings were 
begun. Pending the completion of the fortifi- 
cation, the natives were not permitted within the 
rectangle, except in small groups and without arms. 

The establishment of San Buenaventura was the 
inauguration of new regulations in the mission sys- 
tem as promulgated by Governor Neve. The sol- 



SAN BUENAVENTURA. 67 

diers, under heavy penalties, were constrained from 
interference with the natives. They were, under no 
circumstances, to visit the rancherias, unless under 
orders from the padres. To the vicious acts of the 
soldiers nearly all the revolts of the older establish- 
ments had been attributable. This would, by 
Neve's policy, be discontinued, and a purer moral 
atmosphere permeate presidio and rancheria. 

Other reasons less magnanimous, however, lay at 
the bottom of the decree. An uncontrollable de- 
sire possessed the military authorities to usurp the 
temporal power of the Franciscans. Jealousy of 
the cowl had ever been rampant in the military 
breast. Neve, possessed of more diplomatic power 
than his predecessors, made the bold innovation 
beneath the guise of humanitarianism ; but however 
sordid his motives, the results were undoubtedly 
beneficial. No longer could the amorous soldier 
frequent the rancherias and betake to himself the 
loves of wives and daughters, as had been his wont. 
The sudden night attack; its revengeful yells, its 
rain of arrows and its crackling blaze, thus became 
less frequent, and the tranquillity of mission life 
less broken. Moreover, the escoltas were not per- 
mitted the possession of horses, the temptation 
to appropriate which the native Californian had 
hitherto been morally unable to resist. 

The first few years at the seaside mission were 
not so prolific of baptisms as were commensurate 



68 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

with the earlier protestations of friendship, nor with 
the clarified moral environment ; but the first year 
of the new century let in a flood of success to the 
friars. Padres Dumetz and Santa Maria, they who 
had reared the primitive altar beneath the boughs 
and had swung the incense through its leafy roof to 
the heavens beyond, still remained at the helm, 
guiding the mission through the shoals of hardship 
to a port of temporal and spiritual ease. 

In 1802, Ventura possessed finer herds of cattle 
and richer fields of grain than any of her contem- 
poraries, and her gardens and orchards were visions 
of wealth and beauty, withheld from the loves of 
the hoary surf by a yellow field of corn that relent- 
lessly waved ' ' no ' ' to his passionate embraces. The 
same cool breezes that bestirred the silvered leaves 
of the apple and peach trees swayed the tops of the 
cocoanut and banana; these children of the tropics 
grew and prospered by the seaside with the same 
glorious luxuriance of their less sensuous kindred. 
Then came the chilly blast of secularization. 
Though less bitter than it blew upon the fair San 
Gabriel, the withered leaves and blighted trees ere 
many years told the tale of its visit. 

In 1790, the primitive chapel gave way to a fine 
stone structure, which was completed in 1809. On 
September 9th, with all the solemnity of the Cath- 
olic ritual, Padre Senan, assisted by five other dis- 
ciples of St. Francis, dedicated the new chapel; 



SAN BUENAVENTURA. 69 

for three days the celebration continued, the neo- 
phytes and the neighboring gentiles joining in the 
attendant feast. The religious services of the 
morning over, dancing and the fantastic games of 
the channel tribes held full sway; robed in their 
gay rebozos, the sinuous Indian maidens were a 
delight to the eye; the wild freedom of their primi- 
tive life had developed strength and lithesomeness 
of limb, that the intricate mazes of their dance dis- 
played to the admiring Spaniard. Little wonder, 
then, that the idle, dreaming, romantic son of Cas- 
tile forgot the proud lineage of his race, and wooed 
and won the dark-eyed maiden of the monjerio. 

In the course of its career the new church was 
destined to figure in military as well as religious 
history. in March, 1838, a fierce battle was 
fought within its precincts, between Carrillo's forces 
and the supporters of Alvarado. During the bom- 
bardment a rifleman stationed in the church- tower 
fired a deadly shot into the ranks of the enemy, 
felling a leader; forthwith the guns of the opposing 
forces bore down upon the church, the shot and 
shell beating against the walls with dogged deter- 
mination. The din of battle over and the smoke 
uplifted, the chapel was found to have stood invin- 
cible. The heavy guns, however, left their marks 
upon the whitewashed walls in seams and scars, 
though time, ere this, has almost healed the wounds 
of battle. 



JO THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

The downfall of San Buenaventura during the 
years preceding her secularization was not so swift 
as was the unhappy fate of her sisters. In 
1834, there were six hundred and thirty-six neo- 
phytes gathered in the mission fold; a gain in live- 
stock was noted, and field and orchard yet yielded 
fruitfully. In 1837, came the comisionado, Carlos 
Carrillo, armed with the dreaded pronunciamiento 
of secularization; to him the disheartened and dis- 
couraged padres delivered the temporal belongings 
of the mission which they had reared. 

From the planting of the cross in 1782 until the 
government assumed control in 1837, the mission 
books show that San Buenaventura had brought 
into the pale of Christ three thousand eight hun- 
dred and seventy-six Indians. Moreover, they 
had been taught to sow and reap, to manufacture, 
and to live after the manner of civilized com- 
munities. 

The temple wherein the savage knelt so long ago 
to hear the words of enlightenment and truth 
stands to-day, still a fit shrine wherein to worship 
the great God that supplanted Chupu, the All- 
Power ful. 



THE ANGEL OF DEATH AT SAN CARLOS. 7 1 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE ANGEL OF DEATH AT SAN CARLOS. 

WEARY with toil, racked with pain, and 
wasted from disease and privation, Padre 
Crespi, so long the shepherd at San Carlos, await- 
ed the coming of the grim messenger. Well had 
he watered his flocks in the sparkling brook of 
light and truth; carefully had he gathered them in 
when the storms of disaster overtook them ; and now 
he longed for rest — the rest and the reward that he 
had labored long to earn. 

On December 31, 1781, as the old year was 
heavily heaving his last hoarse breath, the spirit of 
the dying monk fled with it. His task was done. 
Consoled in his last hours by his lifelong friend and 
companion, Padre Serra, he passed away as calmly 
as fades a summer's day. With sorrow and weep- 
ing his body was committed to the grave, the neo- 
phytes and soldiers assisting at the service. 

While Padre Crespi will live in the annals of our 
history as a missionary of pure life and deep zeal, his 
memory as an historian will survive that of the in- 
dividual. The only records extant of the first inland 
expedition through California are those bequeathed 
by him. Simple annals, these, of the new land and 
the new people, but full of the bounding freshness 
of the virgin countrv in which he had cast his lot. 



72 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

The death of Padre Crespi told hard upon the 
venerable Padre Presidente. The last living link 
that bound him to his natal land — his schoolmate, 
friend, and fellow-friar — had passed into the great 
beyond. Prostrated by the blow, he never rallied. 
Instinctively feeling that the parting was but for a 
day, he undertook to prepare for his approaching 
end. In early January, while the frosts still fell on 
the fields about, he started south to administer the 
rite of confirmation upon the neophytes who gath- 
ered in the lower missions. At San Gabriel, his 
throat trouble became exaggerated, and the ulcer 
upon his leg more malignant; indeed, it was thought 
that here he would die. But his labors were not 
yet ended; while a neophyte remained to be con- 
firmed, he must push forward; there were still to be 
visited the missions of Santa Clara and San Fran- 
cisco. In all, he bestowed the rite of confirmation 
upon six thousand converts. Age and disease were 
now pressing hard upon him, and he reluctantly re- 
turned home. Arrived at San Carlos, the dying 
padre was received with open arms by his neo- 
phytes, w r ho ministered tenderly to the ills of their 
beloved master. Two days before the end, he 
arose and walked to the chapel, there to receive the 
last sacrament of the church, — the friars, officers, 
and soldiers witnessing the sad rite with moistened 
eyes. That night was passed reclining in the arms 
of his neophytes, or kneeling in meditation beside 




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THE ANGEL OF DEATH AT SAN CARLOS. 73 

his couch. Arising, he tottered to the door of his 
cell, and gazed out for the last time upon field and 
orchard, sky and river. Uplifting his eyes to the 
stars, "the forget-me-nots of the angels,' ' he 
bowed his head in resignation, and returning, 
closed his eyes to earth as peacefully as a babe 
goeth to sleep upon its mother's breast. 

Soon the bells in the tower tolled forth the sad 
tidings. Scores of Indians, weeping and wringing 
their hands, hastened to the chapel, bearing blos- 
soms and wreaths of leaves to lay at the feet of the 
beloved shepherd. 

Clad in the simple garb of a monk, he lay peace- 
fully sleeping in the dim light of the sanctuary, his 
hands crossed on his breast, clasping the crucifix — 
the standard to which he had ever been a loyal sub- 
ject. Touching, indeed, must have been the neo- 
phytes' manifestations of sorrow — they of a nation 
born to dissemble; but behold the grief of the stolid 
chieftain, who from his cradle had learned to 
smother emotion. Unabashed at his weakness, 
his tears \v ere mingled with those of his tribe, as he 
knelt by the side of the dead friar and kissed the 
hem of his garment. 

On Sunday, August 29th, the body was commit- 
ted to the grave, in the presence of the soldiers and 
officers, and all the inhabitants of Monterey. As 
the body was lowered into the sepulchre, the guns 
of the fort and those of a vessel in port thundered 



74 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

forth a farewell volley. All available honors, civic, 
military, and religious, were bestowed upon the 
hallowed dead. 

The body was interred in the presbytery, beside 
the remains of the beloved Crespi — as they dwelt 
in life, so dwelt they in death. The remains, how- 
ever, were not to rest in their first sepulchral home. 
On the completion of the new chapel, the bodies 
were disinterred and placed somewhere in the 
new edifice; but the exact spot of burial was never 
known, the records of re-interment presumably 
having been lost. In 1852, the tiled roof of the 
second structure fell in, and the sun and the rains 
of many winters brought forth a rank growth of 
grass and weeds, effectually concealing the resting- 
place of the founder of our State. 

Many of the curates of the parish of Monterey 
endeavored, from indirect documents and the mem- 
ories of surviving mission Indians, to locate the hal- 
lowed spot; but it was not till 1882 that light fell 
upon the gravestones, to the great delight of the 
discoverer, Father Casanova, then spiritual minister 
of the sleepy little Spanish town. Led by the dis- 
covery of some weather-stained documents, he set 
to work to clear away the debris and the tangled 
mass of weeds from the deserted sanctuary, and to 
grope about with care in the sacred precinct. After 
a few days' work, he came upon three huge stone 
slabs, such as are used to close sarcophagii; these- 



THE ANGEL OF DEATH AT SAN CARLOS. 75 

removed, and there lay in unquestionable identity 
the mortal remains of the fathers of California, so 
long concealed from human gaze. Replacing the 
slabs in position, he returned in a few days, and in 
the presence of several hundred people, opened the 
sepulchres that so long concealed their dead, and 
revealed to the wondering spectators the grinning 
skulls and whitened bones. In silent reverence, I 
looked into the nearest one, that of Junipero's (it 
having been my good fortune to be visiting the 
quaint old town at the time), and I beheld the 
linen kerchief that had bound his weary feet; the 
femur and the fibula were still in a fair state of pres- 
ervation, as was also the toothless skull, but all else 
had gone the way of all flesh — to the dust of the 
universe. 

Well do I remember the pathetic recital of the 
deeds of the good old friar, as related by his latter- 
day successor, which led me irresistibly into con- 
templating the divergent circumstances of their 
respective labors. The friar upon whose ashes I 
had gazed was wont to preach in a language 
wholly new to him — the tongue of the Sacalanes — 
and to relegate his soft Castilian to the few leisure 
moments spent with his solitary colleague. With 
a congregation of wide-eyed, simple savages, who 
knew as little of the philosophy of their being as a 
babe unborn, in a vast country peopled only by a 
pagan race whose attitude to the friars was wholly 



76 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

unknown, and with no possible means of escape 
should the savages rise against them ; yet, unper- 
turbed, they labored on, content and happy at each 
conversion, sorrowful at each desertion. 

Long may the memories of such men survive. 
In this age of gain and greed, such examples of 
self-abnegation and sacrifice are worthy of our re- 
flection. 

Junipero Serra, the layer of the corner-stone of 
Western civilization, thy name shall live as long as 
our rivers pursue their courses and our mountains 
rear their proud crests heavenward ! 



CHAPTER XV. 

SANTA BARBARA. 

ALMOST simultaneous with the establish- 
ment of San Buenaventura, the presidio of 
Santa Barbara was founded. This was the step- 
ping-stone to the planting of the mission there. 

The site chosen was the bend of a small, shel- 
tered bay, at a spot called Concepcion Laguna. 
Near by was a large village of gentiles, governed 
by a chieftain known as Yanonalit, who professed 
great friendship for the missionaries; governing, as 
he did, thirteen populous rancherias, his friendli- 
ness was invaluable to the padres. The natives, 



SANTA BARBARA. 77 

partaking of the confidence of their chief, offered 
themselves to assist in the building of the necessary 
structures. Their offer was accepted and paid for 
in articles of food and clothing and in trinkets. 

On December 4, 1786, the festival of Santa Bar- 
bara Virgen y Martyr, the Mission of Santa Bar- 
bara was formally established, with Padres Antonio 
Paterna and Cristobal Oramas in charge. Owing 
to the lateness of the season and the heavy rains, 
but little work was done on the mission buildings, 
the presidio built in 1782 offering shelter to the 
missionaries and their attendants till spring. Good 
work was accomplished here in the Masters vine- 
yard. During 1790, five hundred and twenty bap- 
tisms had been performed. 

Three years after the foundation of the mission, a 
church was erected of adobes — a structure eighteen 
by ninety feet, whitewashed and roofed in with tiles. 
This, like the other stone structures in the south, 
suffered much from the great earthquake; extensive 
repairs were made upon it, but withal it was not 
deemed entirely safe in so shaky a locality. In 1815, 
a new church was begun, and, in 1820, it was con- 
secrated with the greatest jubilation yet held in the 
new country. It is described by Padre Francisco 
Suner in the mission annals in the following manner: 
It is ' ( of hewn stone and mortar, walls very strongly 
built with good buttresses, a tower of two stories, 
holding six bells, a plaster ceiling frescoed, marbled 



78 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

columns, altar-tables in Roman style, one of them 
with a pulpit. Image of Santa Barbara in front of 
a niche supported by six columns, and at the ex- 
tremities of the triangle the three virtues, all four 
figures being of cut stone, painted in oil. The floor 
of burnished bitumen, various decorations in church 
and sacristy; all agreeable, strong and neat." So 
substantial an edifice attracted much attention and 
admiration at the time, and has ever since enjoyed 
much distinction among the missions, being espe- 
cially attractive to tourists, hundreds of whom visit 
it yearly. 

At the zenith of her prosperity, there were gath- 
ered within the ponderous mission-walls a commun- 
ity of nearly two hundred and fifty adobe dwell- 
ings, whitewashed and tiled, and floor :d with a 
newly-discovered sort of bitumen; neat, clean, and 
comfortable, these domiciles were ofttimes more 
habitable than those of the gente de razon of the 
presidio. Manufactures progressed satisfactorily. 
As early as 1800, we learn that two hundred In- 
dians were engaged in carding, weaving and dye- 
ing, and with amazing success. They possessed 
many native methods of dyeing that surpassed the 
skill of the Spaniards — their Campeche, Brazil 
and Zacatastal woods producing fine colorings. 
Red, in all its savage glare, was the most sought 
after, both by men and women. Red rebozos 
adorned the maidens, red blankets the males, red 



SANTA BARBARA. 79 

ribbons both, with a preponderance of decoration, 
I am told, in favor of the men. 

Carpentering and masonry were taught syste- 
matically by regularly employed instructors, most 
of whom were imported from Mexico. That the 
natives obtained proficiency in these industries, one 
need but stand before the lofty towers and broad 
facade of the surviving church and its magnificent 
fountain before it, to be convinced. 

Besides the grosser vocations, the Indians of 
Santa Barbara acquired much skill in an artistic 
sort of leather-stamping, an industry that flour- 
ishes still in the country round about. 

This mission, that lay in the embrace of hills 
and ocean, passed its childhood days in peaceful 
quiet, growing into beautiful maturity, with little 
of incident to impart, unless it be Vancouver's 
visit, in 1798, and Bouchard's, later, until 1824, 
when her stately pillars became, for the nonce, 
battlements of war, from behind which the insur- 
gent Indians rained arrows and shot upon the 
Spaniards with deadly effect. Then followed the 
apostates' escape to the hills, and later to the 
Tulare plains, carrying everything portable, even 
threatening to carry away the fat friar — he who 
later became their powerful intercessor, and ob- 
tained for them, from Don Luis Arguello, an indulto, 
or absolute pardon, resulting in armed forces being 
dispatched to their retreat to bring them back to the 



8o THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

mission and the forgiving fathers, who received them 
with open arms at their tearful recital of repent- 
ance, which, to my mind, was largely brought 
about by the scarcity, on the Tulare plains, of beef, 
beds, and blankets. However, the padres rejoiced 
at the neophytes' renunciation of evil, which they 
firmly believed to have been sincere. 

Ofttimes, in just such manner, the friars' zeal 
supplanted sophistry; because the insurgents vio- 
lated nothing within the church, and therefore com- 
mitted no sacrilege, Padre Rapoll was wholly un- 
able to discern the crime of rebellion. 

The mission, over whose orchard and garden 
the invigorating breezes of ocean have swept these 
hundred years, has held her own against the on- 
slaughts of time. Secularization was less devastat- 
ing here than elsewhere, the disciples of St. Fran- 
cis soon succeeding Comisionado Anastasio Carrillo 
as custodians of fair Santa Barbara, over whose des- 
tinies they still preside. Just as of old, the cowled 
monks walk and pray in the mission garden, tread- 
ing the same paths beneath the trees as did the 
friars of long ago. Courteous and pleasant ever, 
they will lead the visitor into the ancient chapel, 
and dwell at length upon the treasures that were 
gathered there in the past. An air of ancient sanc- 
tity pervades the chapel, that in the stillness of a 
summer afternoon is solemnly impressive and moves 
the visitor to speak in whispered tones. The in- 




.5; 



LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION. 8 1 

cense that has burned these scores of years has per- 
fumed dome and pillar, its heavy breath denying 
life to the weakly sunbeams that strive to enter. 

Beside the church lie the ancient graves of her 
fathers, unmarked and forgotten, save by the gold- 
en poppies that return each spring — nature's 
endeavor to immortalize their resting-place. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

LA PURISIMA CONCEPCION. 

THIS mission, so charmingly christened, was 
located on the Santa In£z river, being form- 
ally founded December 8, 1787. Later, however, 
the site known as "Algsacupi" was changed, the 
mission being transferred across the river to Los 
Berros. 

In 1795, the chapel, crude in its construction, 
was rapidly falling to ruin, and we find the natives 
diligently gathering materials for a new edifice, 
which was dedicated in 1802. 

In 181 2 came a terrific temblor, which visited La 
Purisima with vicious severity. Its new chapel 
tumbled and fell, its hundred tile-roofed dwellings 
were shaken down, and the seething river swept 
away what little had survived the shock. 

Undismayed, however, Padre Pay6ras set to work, 



82 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

with his neophytes and guard, constructing huts of 
wood and straw, such as were in vogue among the 
gentiles on the channel. Recognizing the futility 
of building again on the old site, permission was 
obtained from Mexico to remove it. Within two 
years a temporary chapel had been erected, besides 
warehouses and corrals for their six thousand head 
of cattle. But it was not until 1817 that the 
church, among whose ruins we stand to-day, was 
reared and dedicated — a stone structure, pure and 
simple in conception, but without an attempt at the 
sublime that marked the earlier missions. 

At this period La Purisima was at the zenith of 
her prosperity. A village of fifteen hundred con- 
verts had grown upon the river bank, and dwelt in 
contented simplicity. 

Padre Mariano Payeras, the shepherd of this 
little flock, possessed with a zealous longing to in- 
still into the minds of his children a more thorough 
knowledge of their newly adopted faith, prepared a 
catechism and a manual of confession in the native 
tongue — a unique production, indeed, and one 
which assisted largely in eradicating many idola- 
trous beliefs, resultant from the prehistoric worship 
of Chupu. 

The daisied fields of La Purisima yielded support 
to the largest herds of cattle in the Californias dur- 
ing the decade preceding secularization; but within 
a few years annihilation had descended upon the 



SANTA CRUZ. 83 

mission, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, the 
neophyte population having dwindled away to but 
one hundred and twenty souls. 

When, in 1835, Domingo Carrillo came to the 
mission with his decree of secularization, Purisima, 
shorn of her beauties, was valued at but sixty 
thousand dollars, divided as follows: Eight thou- 
sand dollars for church property, five thousand 
dollars in buildings, two thousand dollars for im- 
plements and furniture, seventeen thousand dollars 
in lands, eleven thousand dollars in produce, and 
seventeen thousand dollars in livestock. 

This is the tale of the beautiful Mission Puri- 
sima, the field where some of the noblest characters 
of our early history labored faithfully and well. 
The river flows on as of yore, when the sound of 
the Angelus rippled over its fair bosom. To what 
a drama that murmuring river was a witness! 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SANTA CRUZ. 

a ANT A CRUZ Mission was founded near the 
Rio San Lorenzo, on September 25, 1791, 
on a site selected by Padre Lasuen of Carmel. 

On September 2 2d, Alfirez Sal and Corporal 
Peralta, with two cscoltas, left San Francisco for the 



84 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

proposed locality, being joined at Santa Clara by 
Padres Alonzo Salazar and Baldomero Lopez. 

After an enjoyable march through forest and 
over meadow, they arrived at Santa Cruz on the 
24th, where they found a hut had been erected for 
them by some neophytes from Santa Clara. 

On the following day — Sunday — the sun rose 
from a murky sky, such as is seen only in soft 
September. Before the heat of the day was upon 
them the ceremonies began. The guns thundered, 
the bells rang, and the blessing of the water and 
the cross followed. Sugert, chief of the Indians in 
the neighborhood, had informed his people of the 
coming of the " chinchinabros, M and had warned 
them not to fear the noise of their gunpowder^ 

The church was begun in February, 17 cm and 
was formally dedicated on May 10, 1794, — Sugert 
and his tribe witnessing the ceremony. It was not 
of so pretentious a character as the chapel of Santa 
Clara, but was quite as commodious. It measured 
one hundred and twelve feet long, by thirty feet 
wide; the tule roof was vaulted, and at its apex 
measured thirty feet from the ground. 

The fajade of masonry gave the edifice an ap- 
pearance of dignity; but the chapel of Santa Cruz 
was never remarkable for any distinguishing beauty 
or strength. 

When, in 1856, the aged structure tottered and 
fell, diligent search was instituted for treasure that 



SANTA CRUZ. 8$ 

was supposed to have been hidden in the corner- 
stone; but the seekers were doomed to disappoint- 
ment — not even the stone itself was to be found. 

Santa Cruz was fairly successful from the first, 
continuing on until 1800 at an even, healthy pace, 
making good and numerous Christians, raising good 
crops, and basking happily in the sunshine of 
prosperity, spiritual and temporal. 

Secularization was effected in 1834-5 by Ignacio 
del Valle, comisionado. The properties taken 
possession of by him amounted to some forty-seven 
thousand dollars, exclusive of the church and its 
lands. 

Here the Indians received a part of the spoils, 
ten thousand dollars being distributed among 
them. Whither it went we can but conjecture; for 
in 1839 Hartnell found the remaining remnant of 
the tribe — some seventy Indians — poverty-stricken 
and utterly miserable, with nothing to show of their 
subsidy. It seems to me quite rational that these 
simple people — never accustomed to think for 
themselves — fell easy prey to the sharp traders that 
infested the coast. However be it, the estate of 
Santa Cruz disappeared as mysteriously as if 
mother ocean had rolled in and lapped it up. No 
records remain to illumine this chapter of de- 
spoliation. 

The French traveler, Laplace, tells us that in 
1839 the mission was in a sorry state of ruin, filth, 



86 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

and poverty, only her gardens maintaining a 
shadow of respectability. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

LA SOLEDAD. 

IN keeping with its nomenclature, the spot where 
this mission formerly stood is lonely and de- 
serted. Few traces of it remain, either in ruins or 
records. From a letter written by Padre Lasuen, 
we learn that he himself selected the site of the dol- 
orous mission, while on his way to Santa Cruz, early 
in 1 79 1. The spot was known among the Indians 
as " Chuttusgelis, ,, but to the Spaniards as " Sole- 
dad.' ' The latter name was bestowed upon it by 
Portola in 1769, during his famous expedition to 
Monterey. In September a corps of Christian In- 
dians left San Carlos for Soledad, to prepare for the 
coming of Padre Lasuen. An enramada was con- 
structed, a hut erected, and on October 9th he 
arrived with his vestments, chasubles, etc., and said 
mass under a tall redwood. 

The district seemed well populated, for crowds 
of gentiles, male and female, gathered about and 
eagerly watched the ceremonies. Padre Lasuen 
tells us with great rejoicing, "that they showed 
they would gladly enlist under the sacred banner." 



LA SOLEDAD. 5J 

But whether such results as he fondly expected 
were obtained, we have but to conjecture. Of the 
mission of "Our Lady of Solitude' ' little else 
survives but the name, Soledad, as applied to a 
sleepy town near by. 

The church, of which a few straggling walls sur- 
vive, was an adobe structure with a roof of straw, 
completed somewhere about 1797. 

In 1800 there clustered about this unpretentious 
chapel a community of four hundred and ninety- 
three converts, — a rather encouraging report as 
compared with the other establishments of greater 
natural advantages. 

Of all the old mission ruins, this is, to my mind, 
one of the most romantic. The dolorous air that 
hung about it in the olden time has become like an 
aged ivy — heavier, more solemn, more impressive 
with its years. At night it becomes a vision. 

This is a mission that should be perpetuated. 
Situated finely for cattle or sheep raising, would it 
not be an excellent training-school for the remnant 
of the race to which it was reared ? Here could be 
gathered a hundred or more of the Indian children, 
now roaming about the State in a semi-civilized 
condition, and instructed in the industries of our 
time. 



SS THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

SAN JOSE. 

BY an edict from Mexico, there must be, ere 
long, a mission in California dedicated to St. 
Joseph, the spiritual spouse of the Blessed Mother. 
Accordingly, the one next established was placed 
beneath his especial guidance, and became known 
as San Jose. 

On June 10, 1796, a detail of dust-covered sol- 
diers, accompanying Padre Lasuen, halted at a spot 
known as "Oroysom," at the Alameda, there to 
plant the cross anew. On the following day, which 
most propitiously happened to be Trinity Sunday, 
the regular ceremonial occurred. The litanies 
sung, the water blessed, and the cross raised, 
Father Lasuen and his soldiers repaired to Mission 
Santa Clara, not far distant, to spend the day. By 
the end of the month, the necessary buildings were 
erected, and Isodoro Barcenilla and Augustin 
Merino became the shepherds of the fold. 

Scarcely had the missionaries settled themselves 
in their new field of labor when rumors of a terrible 
Indian uprising reached their ears. The report 
proved false, however, but not until the padres and 
soldiers had been thoroughly alarmed. The rumor 
arose from the fact that an unusual number of 
arrows were being made by the surrounding tribes, 




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SAN JOSE. 89 

and the inference was immediately drawn that they 
were doubtless made to exterminate the " Guac- 
amal," whom the Sacalanes cordially disliked, but 
in truth they were simply preparing for a tribal 
hunt in the foothills, perfectly innocent of the alarm 
they were causing the Spaniards. 

To convince us that the pathway of the padre 
was often fraught with dangers, however, we need 
but follow Padre Cueva, of San Jose, upon one of 
his ministering journeys to the dying. 

Late in January, he was summoned to the death- 
bed of a neophyte, at a rancheria some twelve or 
fifteen miles distant. Mounting his horse, and 
accepting the escort of the majordomo, Ignacio 
Higuera, and two soldiers of the guard, he hastened 
off toward the foothills to administer the consola- 
tions of the faith. Arriving at the rancheria, 
instead of a repentant neophyte awaiting his 
ministrations, he was received by a rain of arrows 
from a band of renegades in ambush. His horse 
fell under him, the padre himself was severely 
wounded, and Higuera and the two soldiers, his 
devoted escort, were killed outright. Fleeing from 
the savages, the friar and a few neophytes sought 
refuge in a cave, where they remained in seclusion 
until nightfall. Under cover of darkness, they 
stole away, and finally reached the mission more 
dead than alive. 

This is but one of the innumerable tragedies that 



90 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

were ever being enacted; yet have we a single in- 
stance where vacancies caused by the savage arrow 
were not immediately filled ? 

The ancient chapel at San Jose was never pre- 
tentious — a simple wooden structure, with a roof of 
woven grasses. Some time after 1800, a more 
substantial structure supplanted the picturesque 
pre-pastoral church, which has survived the lapse 
of nearly a century. With its beautiful orchards 
and Alhambran gardens, the mission has been the 
theme of many a painter's brush. 



CHAPTER XX. 

SAN JUAN BAUTISTA. 

THIS pretty little mission was established June 
24, 1797, in a locality known among the 
natives as " Popeloutchom," but to the Spaniards 
as ' ' San Benito. ' ' It was charmingly located, the 
soil being highly productive and the climate quite 
Andalusian. 

Presidente Lasuen, assisted by Padres Martiarena 
and Catala, under a clump of spreading live-oaks, 
with which the country abounded, performed the 
service of dedication, raised the royal standard, and 
proclaimed San Juan Bautista one of the chain of 



SAN JUAN BAUTISTA. 9 1 

missions now established through California by the 
charity of Carlos III. 

Prominent among the ministers who labored with 
the gentiles at San Juan was Padre Jacinto Lopez, 
a superior man, but of exceedingly eccentric habits. 

During the decade following the establishment, 
Indian troubles continually harassed the poor 
padres, sleeping or waking. About twenty-five 
miles to the east of San Juan, there dwelt a warlike 
tribe of Indians known as the Ansayames. In 1798 
they bore down upon the mission at midnight, bent 
upon destroying the property and slaughtering the 
people. By the prompt action of the Governor, 
taken almost at the moment of the onslaught, the 
raid was thwarted, and the savages went back to 
their fastnesses in the mountains. Again, in 1799, 
they resumed their hostile attitude, and made a raid 
upon the Moutsones, a tribe living in the rancherias 
of the mission, slaying five of their number. Other 
similar attacks followed until 1800, when the climax 
was attained by their slaughtering two more Mout- 
sones and razing some houses and a large wheat- 
field to the ground, the mission being saved with 
much difficulty. Sergeant Moraga, with a guard 
of ten soldiers, marched into their midst and sum- 
marily took their chief a prisoner with a dozen 
braves. This practically diminished their desire for 
missionary gore. 

In October of that year, terrific seismic disturb- 



92 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ances occurred throughout the region, great chasms 
appearing in many places, notably on the banks of 
the Pajaro. For many nights the affrighted Span- 
iards, including the padres, passed the time in the 
mission carts, fearful at every tremor of being en- 
gulfed in the yawning chasms. No serious damage 
occurred, however, except to the buildings, which 
were somewhat cracked and shaken out of plumb. 
The natives were not seriously alarmed, strange to 
relate, and told with evident gusto of great fissures 
opening in the rocks at such times, from which 
springs of salt water would emerge. 

It was not until 1800 that a change was effected 
from a wooden church, closed in by a mud roof, to 
a stone structure, the remains of which are pre- 
served to us of to-day. 



CHAPTER XXL 

SAN MIGUEL. 

aNDER the patronage of Saint Michael, "the 
most glorious prince of the heavenly militia," 
was the next outpost of the church established. 

Located in a grove of hospitable oaks, at a spot 
known among the natives as "Varna" or 
"Vatica," and to the Castilians as " Las Pozas," 
it grew up without ostentation or especial import- 



SAX MIGUEL. 93 

ance, yet doing good work in the Master's vine- 
yard. 

On July 25, 1797, Presidente Lasuen and Father 
Sitjar, with the presidial troops and numbers of 
savages as witnesses, blessed the water and the 
cross, chanted the litanies, read the mass, and 
offered up to God this new establishment, erected 
for the further glorification of His name and the 
redemption of His children. 

On the day of the founding, fifteen children were 
ottered the zealous Friar Sitjar for baptism, a fact 
that pitched his hopes aloft for the spiritual pros- 
perity of San Miguel. At the dawning of the new 
century, there were gathered together four hundred 
Christianized Indians, tilling the soil, rearing cattle, 
and occupied in the various pursuits of civilized 
people. Where in the history of man was observed 
such a rapid transition from savagism to compara- 
tive civilization ? 

The records of San Miguel have little to relate in 
the way of adventure or of individual interest, lest 
it be the unique method of subduing the repellant 
attitude of Guchapa, chief of the rancherias in that 
region. Unsatisfied with the number of young 
braves who came to seek the new faith, Padre 
Martin ventured to the great Cholan rancheria, 
some fourteen leagues distant, to request of the 
frowning old chieftain that he send some of his 
young men to the mission to be Christianized. 



94 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

Sternly repulsing the friar and his military escort, 
the chief exultingly replied that he feared nothing 
ibm the friars and still less from the soldiers, since 
none of them could repel death. " Afraid," said 
he, ' ' afraid of men who are but men like ourselves ? 
You die like the Indian, and therefore we are not 
afraid." Realizing the necessity of' altering his 
conservative idea somewhat, Commander de la 
Guerra dispatched a sergeant and fourteen men to 
take the rebellious old chieftain prisoner. After an 
heroic resistance, he succumbed to the Spaniards, 
and w T as carried into the mission, where with won- 
derful alacrity he recanted, and offered his whole 
tribe to the padres, if they would but set him free, 
tendering his only son as a hostage. 

San Miguel, never temporally prosperous, be- 
came miserably poor after 1820, about which time 
the quaint adobe structure that survives to-day was 
completed. The soil round about was not prolific, 
and the frosts were frequently disastrous; so that 
when the governmental call came in 18 15 for sup- 
plies for the troops, San Miguel could contribute 
nothing but wool and wine — and these only in 
limited quantities. 

Shaded from the heat of the summer sun by 
thick clumps of gigantic oaks, the mission must 
certainly have been a grateful inn to the travelers 
of the times. If the larders of the mission held 
naught but bread and wine, the weary pilgrim was 




J-4 



am 





s& 



SAN FERNANDO. 95 

ever welcome— his horse was taken from him, 
watered and fed, and if need be, he was given a 
fresh relay on his departure, from the fine stock of 
the mission. 

On resuming his journey, refreshed and cheered, 
the padres would gather about him, and bid him 
God-speed, after extending a hospitality that could 
flourish only in a country of milk and honey, such 
as was this new-found Andalusia. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

SAN FERNANDO. 

IN order to establish a complete chain of missions 
from San Diego north, one must of necessity 
have been placed between San Buenaventura and 
San Gabriel. 

A fine rancho, known as Reyes', and called by 
the natives " Anchois Comihavit," met the approval 
of the friars as a suitable site; but Alcalde Fran- 
cisco Reyes, the owner, apparently disagreed with 
them on the desirability of utilizing it for a mission. 
At any rate, we find the friars occupying the ran- 
chero's residence until suitable mission buildings 
were erected. 

On September 8, 1797, Presidente Lasuen, as- 



96 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

sisted by Padre Dumetz and the customary array 
of soldiers and natives, performed the usual cere- 
monies, dedicating the mission to San Fernando, 
Rey de Espana, as according to instructions from 
the Viceroy of Mexico. 

In 1806, an adobe church, with a tiled roof, sup- 
planted the primitive structure of wood and grasses, 
and with much ceremony was dedicated to the 
great Fernando III., a king of Spain, who in 167 1 
was canonized by Clement X. 

When the disastrous temblor of 18 12 visited the 
southern missions, and wreaked such sad havoc 
among them, San Fernando suffered but slightly. 
The only repair necessary was the introduction of 
thirty new beams, to strengthen the shaken walls. 
Later a tiled corridor was constructed, which ran 
off to the right; a beautiful fountain and basin of 
masonry were built in the mission courtyard, and 
the huge trees of oak and alder growing beside it 
reflected their waving branches in its glistening 
water. Here it was that the friars of San Fernando 
were wont to say their rosaries in the cool summer 
twilight. 

San Fernando was in a flourishing condition 
about 1820 — her vineyards yielding large returns. 
In 1840, two thousand gallons each of wine and 
brandy were produced. In 1826, an inventory of 
her possessions was taken, showing, besides her 
immense flocks and herds, merchandise in hei 



SAX LUIS REY DE FRANCIA. 97 

warehouse to the value of fifty thousand dollars, 
and ninety thousand dollars in specie. 

With all her wealth and pride, however, her fate, 
like the rest, was sealed. In 1846, the mission was 
sold to Eulogio Celis, by order of Governor Pio 
Pico, for fourteen thousand dollars. In later years 
the title was confirmed — the once proud mission 
had gone under the hammer. 

It was here that the remnants of the Californian 
forces signed the paper of capitulation to Fremont, 
thus closing- the Mexican war. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

SAN LUIS REY DE FRANCIA, 

JUST north of the San Diego mission ruins stand 
the remains of the most beautiful mission of all 
— San Luis Rev de Francia, founded June 13, 1798, 
by Presidente Lasuen, assisted by Padres Santiago 
and Peyri. It is still in a splendid state of preser- 
vation, but each year stamps its work of destruc- 
tion upon it. 

The mission was established under the most 
auspicious circumstances, and prospered from the 
first. Padre Pevri was much beloved; and being- 
possessed of wonderful administrative abilities and 
consuming" zeal, he reared the qrandest adobe 



95 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

edifice that was ever dedicated to the glorifica- 
tion of God in Alta California, completing the 
structure in 1802. 

Situated not far from a beautiful river, its lands 
were prodigally fertile, and yielded support to im- 
mense herds of cattle. The neophyte population 
of the mission increased proportionately, and a 
glorious career was prophesied for San Luis. 

From this period the records of the mission are 
lost; comparatively little is known of its history 
other than that Padre Peyri continued in adminis- 
tration, maintaining the institution with the same 
dignity that stamped it from its birth. Up to 1826, 
he had gathered into the fold of Christ two thou- 
sand eight hundred and sixty-nine proselytes; the 
herds and flocks were doubling every ten years, and 
prosperity, spiritual and temporal, continued to 
shine on San Luis Rey. But a dark day was yet 
in store for the now venerable padre — the decree 
of secularization had gone forth. 

After thirty-three years of faithful and efficient 
service, unwilling to witness a revolution of his life- 
work and an overthrow of his plans, he bade a 
tearful farewell to his children and his associates, 
beseeching them to follow in the ways of the cross, 
and commending them all to God. He found his 
way to Mexico, thence to Spain, and lastly to 
Rome, where he fell ill and died, a broken-hearted 
man, exiled from the land he loved so well. 



SAX LUIS REY DE FRANCIA. 99 

In 1833, Captain de la Portilla, in the name of 
the home government, came to San Luis Rey and 
formally converted the mission into a pueblo — the 
consummation of a plan that had driven Padre 
Peyri to foreign shores. 

For over half a century the magnificent structure 
has stood mournfully awaiting its inevitable destruc- 
tion. But behold ! a friendly hand has at last been 
extended in its behalf; and ere long San Luis Rey 
de Francia will be restored to its pristine beauty, — 
a living monument to the noblest band of men that 
have graced the pages of modern history. It is to 
be restored as nearly as possible to its original ap- 
pearance, keeping well in mind the theory of the 
pre-pastoral style of church architecture. 

May the eternal fitness of things stay the hand 
of him who would lay a shingled or a metallic roof 
over the ancient structure, as has been done at San 
Gabriel and at other missions. It is a crime — a 
crime that cries out in despair to the enthusiast on 
ruins. However, I doubt not that the clergy who 
have taken the matter in charge will place it before 
us as it stood when at the zenith of its glory. 



lOO THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

SAN ANTONIO DE PALA. 

PALA is net, properly speaking, a mission. It 
was but a branch of San Luis Rey, founded 
in 1816 by the good Father Peyri, that he might 
be nearer the gentiles of the mountains. It con- 
sisted solely of a chapel and a few scattered cor- 
rals, the remains of which are in a splendid state of 
preservation. 

The distinguishing feature of Pala is its belfry. 
It stands off to the left like a silent sentinel guarding 
the ruins beneath it. Suspended in it are the same 
bells that called the neophytes to prayer nearly a 
century ago. Nature, striving to adorn the beau- 
tiful relic, has planted a huge cactus on the extreme 
top, which, when in bloom, presents a charming 
picture. 

To this day, these bells are rung to gather the 
Indians from the surrounding hills, just as of old, 
to assist at the Sabbath service. 





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W 
P 

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SANTA INEZ. IOI 

CHAPTER XXV. 

SANTA INEZ. 

ON September 17, 1804, tne mission of Santa 
Inez was ushered into being, with the usual 

solemn ceremonial. Under the especial patronage 
of Saint Agnes, virgin and martyr, the mission was 
charmingly christened. Comandante Carrillo, with 
nine of the presidio guard at Santa Barbara and 
large numbers of neophytes from Purisima, assisted 
Padres Jose Calzada and Jose Gutierrez in the ser- 
vice of establishment. 

The records of Santa Inez, like many of the later 
missions, are shrouded in darkness — whether lost 
or destroyed it is not known; but enough remains 
to tell us of the birth of the new chapel, the quaint 
structure with which we are familiar ; the old 
edifice having been sadly shaken by the shock 
of 1S12, as indeed were most of the dwellings 
round about, a new structure was planned and 
begun. 

On July 4, 1 817 — Independence Day — the 
church was dedicated. This proved the turning tide 
of her fortunes. Soon afterward the population 
began to decline, but like her neighbor, La Purf- 
sima, her flocks and herds continued to multiply. 

In 1S24, during the revolt of the Indian malcon- 
tents, most of the buildings were razed to the 



102 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

ground; already on its downward career, the mis- 
sion structures were never rebuilt. 

Santa Inez, as it is to-day, appears almost prison- 
like. Its grim visage is no longer softened by 
blooming orchards nor dazzling gardens; but it has 
a history, and we love it for its past. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

SAN RAFAEL. 

IT was not until 1817 that the Spaniards turned 
their attention toward the north — a strange 
circumstance in the face of the fact that it was the 
invasions of the north that first stimulated the estab- 
lishment of the missions in the country. The 
mortality had been frightful at San Francisco for 
some time; a panic was almost imminent, when 
Lieutenant Sola suggested to the disheartened 
padres to move their patients across the bay, that 
the balmy breezes of the inland might restore them. 

Accordingly this was done — Sola's remedy had 
proved an effective one. Whether a hospital 
should be established over the bay, or a mission, 
was now a mooted question, the scarcity of mis- 
sionaries making the latter doubtful. 

The death of a convert, however, without spir- 
itual consolation, decided the matter, and forthwith 



SAX FRAXCISCO SOLAXO. I03 

Padre Luis Taboada became the minis fro residence. 
On December 14, 18 17, Father Luis, accompanied 
by three colleagues, dedicated the spot with the 
customary ceremonies, the locality having been 
known among the Indians as "Nanaguani." By 
the middle of the following year an adobe building 
was erected, which served the purpose of chapel 
and residence. 

Under the ministrations of Father Juan Amoros, 
San Rafael was fairly prosperous; in 1S28 it reached 
the pinnacle of its success, numbering one thousand 
one hundred and forty souls. 

Comparatively little remains to-day of the old 
establishment — little else than a memory. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

SAX FRANCISCO SOLAXO. 

ON Passion Sunday, April 4, 1824, the mission 
church of Solano was formally dedicated to 
the patron saint of the Indies. A rude wooden 
structure it was, but in it were baptized six hundred 
and sixty-five Indians before 1830. At the end of 
the year a fine adobe building was being con- 
structed, and was just about to be roofed in, when 
terrific rains set in and washed away the newly- 
built walls. It was never completed. When 



104 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

springtime came the squares about the mission 
were gorgeous with flowers; the vineyard had re- 
ceived much attention, and matters spiritual and 
temporal were progressing satisfactorily. Trees 
had been planted profusely, and altogether Saint 
Solano had every cause to be proud of his mission 
in California. Its success, however, was short- 
lived. In spite of the zeal of its founder, Padre 
Altimira, the mission died away — died, as it were, 
of inanition. 

This, the last of the Californian missions, was the 
very feeblest of all — showing that the mission 
system under the existing conditions was worn out; 
the vitality had gone from it and collapse was its 
inevitable fate. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

RESUME. 

aUCH of the Indians as were deemed to be 
well-behaved and responsible were allotted 
lands and stock, but these gifts entailed labor; and 
when the horse-power of missionary influence was 
withdrawn, the lands went untilled and the stock 
uncared for. Back to the wild freedom of their 
forefathers they went — even worse for the advent of 
the white man into their dominion than if he had 



RESUME. I05 

never come. They had not lived long enough the 
life of civilization to become a part of it; and how 

in the nature of things the government expected 
them to travel on in the path in which they had but 
just learned to totter, I know not. However be 
it, thev returned to their mountains and ph 
with all the viciousness and taint acquired from the 
white man, and with but little of his superiority or 
attainments. 

Sad, indeed, it is to relate that so many noble 
lives were sacrificed in an undertaking that fell so 
wide of the mark: and yet wonderful things had 
been achieved. 

In a trifle over half a century thirty thousand In- 
dians had b^en taught to till the soil and to utilize 
its products; to manufacture clothing and to wear 
it; to build houses and to live in them — in short. 
they were taught the arts of peace and the prac- 
tices of polite people. Moreover, they were in- 
structed in the mysteries of their being — in the 
beautiful truths of the immortality of the soul, and 
the happiness of a life to come. 

That the task was Herculean, let us but remember 
the verdict of Humboldt and other explorers of the 
intellectual and moral caliber of the natives — lazy, 
dull, cowardly, covetous, and weak of will. 

When, by secularization, the influence and re- 
straint of the padres were removed, a mighty 
struggle ensued between fiftv vears of civilization 



106 THE OLD MISSIONS OF CALIFORNIA. 

and centuries of barbarism, between exertion and 
indolence, between restraint and freedom, and it is 
not surprising that the weaker foe was vanquished. 

However, the padres fulfilled a broader mission 
than that which they sought to accomplish in their 
religious zeal. They brought the seeds of civiliza- 
tion to our fair shore, and sowed them with care. 
Behold to-day the result — a higher, happier, loftier 
civilization than ours the sun has never shone upon. 

It has ever been the custom of ancient and 
modern times to commemorate the resting-places 
of heroes. Now, I ask, why should not these 
sanctuaries — which are at the same time sepulchers 
— be rescued from destruction and preserved to the 
generations to come? There lies about them an 
air of ancient grandeur and sublimity that renders 
them charming, even to the most indifferent be- 
holder; when their romantic, and even tragic, his- 
tory is laid bare, how much more interesting do they 
become! Then let us hope that the memories of the 
forefathers of our State shall thus be perpetuated, 
and that their silent sepulchers will ere long rear 
their shafts heavenward with the pride and dignity 
that are rightfully theirs. 



! 



